Mr and Mrs Carmichael
by Neale
Summary: Pretty much AU, based around the idea that Stephen actually did something to look after Ellie and Chuck when Mary was trapped in Volkoff's world. Most of the back stories from my WDWGT & DD 'verses will be used here as well..
1. Chapter 1

**I'm still working on Different Drums but this idea came up for the next story, so I thought I'd run it up the flagpole to see whether it's likely to generate any interest.**

 **This will be AU I guess, based around the possibility that Stephen did something right when Mary disappeared into Volkoff's world, so Chuck and Ellie didn't get abandoned quite the way they were in the series. Most of the back stories from my Where Do We Go To and Different Drum 'verses will apply here, too, along with some of the ideas, 'cause I likes them.**

 **Usual disclaimer for the Land of Litigation, no rights to any characters portrayed here.**

Chuck's head was killing him when he woke up on the floor of his room with Morgan yammering in his face, why had he been stupid enough to open that email from Bryce fucking Larkin, and what the hell happened to him? Of course, no matter what he said, Morgan just wouldn't shut up, the guy may had been a good friend when they were six, and even when they were nine, but shit, he was still fucking back there mentally!

Getting the phone call from Aunt Diane just as he got to work didn't help either, just what you need when your head's pounding so hard that you can hardly think, to be told that CIA Director Graham has sent his wildcard enforcer after you. Why Aunt Diane seemed to be enjoying telling him how much this Sarah Walker had done in just the past eight years or so, and that she'd left Casey's score behind ages ago he didn't know, did he forget to thank her for his birthday present? No, he hadn't gotten anything yet as far as he could remember. She finished the call by telling him that Casey couldn't be in sight when the CIA got there because they couldn't afford to show their just hand yet, so she described Agent Walker (5' 9", normally blonde, blue eyed, rather attractive), and told him that he'd need to work her to find out what the CIA knew and what Graham wanted. When he sighed and said "OK", she told him to look after himself and ended the call.

He briefed the other Nerd Herders about the new Irene Demova virus that had just started spreading, and which Morgan had already fried one of the store's demo laptops with (and that thing with all the info popping up in his head when that General was on the TV was just weird), then quickly filled Anna in about the Sarah Walker situation once Jeff and Patel had wandered off, asking her to fill Jeff in as soon as she had a chance. She said she would, but laughed about the idea of him seducing any information out of an agent "Chuckles, you're cute, I'd even say hot, but you'd have a hard time seducing anything out of any woman, let alone an agent, shit, the times I've managed to get you into bed with me you've hardly done anything because it wasn't "right" even though you know I'll jump you in a heartbeat, any time, anywhere, you really need to think of some other way of getting anything out of her, shit, here comes Morgan again, see ya!" With that she hopped off the Nerd Herd counter and ran off to try and find catch Jeff away from Patel so she could fill him in on the news.

Sure enough, Morgan turned up about ten seconds after she'd disappeared, looking around for her, but when he couldn't see her he just parked himself there and started rabbiting on again, like a five year old demanding attention. With Anna's warning, Chuck had grabbed some files as he'd walked up and was looking at them, picking up the phone to call one of their suppliers about when their order was going to arrive in hope that he'd get bored and wander off again, yeah, right, like THAT was going to happen! Scanning the files in his hands while he was waiting for the guy at the other end of the line to dig up the info that he'd asked him for, he vaguely registered Morgan saying something about "Stop the presses!" and "Vicky Vale", so he started doing a rap about Vicky Vale in hope that that would shut him up for a few minutes at least.

When he looked up and saw who it was standing in front of him he was so shocked he dropped both the phone and the files. _For fuck's sake, "rather attractive"? She's_ _absolutely_ _fucking gorgeous,_ _and I'm expected to work HER?_ _Anna was right,_ _I'm_ _so_ _screwed,_ _I_ _was lost in her eyes at first sight!_ The best banter he could come up with was lines like "It's from Batman" and "My parents were sadists, and carnival freaks found him in a dumpster." Luckily she came up with her prop for being there, a "broken" phone, so he could concentrate on that (for about fifteen to twenty seconds anyway) and avoid looking her in the eye as he'd be lost again if he did. Soon after he finished that he was saved again by an idiot father with his daughter in a tutu who'd barged in and demanded that they help him because there was something wrong with the camera that he'd tried to tape his daughter's ballet recital with. There was something wrong alright, terminal stupidity on his part, he hadn't even put a tape in the camera because it was "digital" and shouldn't need it. Chuck was about to tell him that there was nothing that they could do for him when he made the mistake of looking at the daughter, who was almost in tears because her father had screwed everything up. A girl's tears were always his kryptonite, but this at least was something he could handle, so he told Morgan to get control of the video wall and turned quickly to apologise to Sarah Walker (he was close to getting lost in her eyes again even in that brief moment, he was so screwed) before going to organise Anna and co to get things set up so that they could record something worthwhile for the girl. The girl was nervous, saying that she was normally put in the back because they'd told she was too tall and she blocked the other ballerinas, so he told her as if in confidence that real ballerinas ARE tall, and that gave her the pick me up she needed to dance with confidence. What he didn't realise was that the "wildcard enforcer" was standing behind him, listening to every word he said to her with a very unprofessional expression on her face, if anyone had seen her in that moment, they would have sworn that her heart was melting as she watched Chuck in the process of turning this girl's moment from a disaster, into a beautiful memory for her to look back on. They finished getting the girl's dance recorded for her and he went to return to Sarah and TRY not to screw it up by making a total fool of himself, but he got cut off (perhaps luckily) by Harry Tang, who was screaming at him in his normal crazy Asian Hitler mode for a few minutes. When Tang had stalked off again, Sarah was gone, leaving her card.

As he was walking into the apartments' courtyard after work, he still had Morgan yammering in his ear about calling the hottie, and only then did it occur to him to ask why he was there (the only way to survive too much time around Morgan was to put your brain on pause, because otherwise you'd strangle the idiot to shut him up), after a few stupid lines that failed so badly that even he could see that it wasn't working he admitted that he'd fried his own computer as well as the work computers with the Irene Demova virus, and wanted to use Chuck's. There was no way that Chuck was about to let that happen, but he was still trying to come up with a response that was firm enough to get rid of him without blowing his cover as they entered the apartment to find a ninja in there carrying his computer. As the "ninja" put the computer on the floor and assumed the stance, he took note of three things, 1) they were properly trained, as their form was quite good 2) the only logical reason that he'd have a trained professional like this in their apartment trying to steal his computer was that it was something to do with the current case, which in turn pretty much meant that they were CIA, and 3) from the profile of the figure he could see that it was a woman with her breasts tightly strapped in an attempt to disguise that fact, so going by the height (around 5' 9"), he presumed that this was Sarah Walker, which of course meant that he couldn't afford to let her see him showing any skills in hand to hand combat. At that point Morgan started picking up things and throwing them at the "ninja", who just deflected them all back into Chuck. After hearing how skilled Sarah Walker was, it HAD to have been intentional when she deflected one of those objects right back into his family jewels, what had he done to her to deserve THAT? Then to add insult to injury Morgan actually smashed a vase into his head and had the gall to scream at him why he wasn't helping? Shit! Given that anywhere away from Morgan had to be a lot safer, he slowly moved towards the "ninja" in hope that she'd put him down without hurting him too much, so much for that idea, she picked up the computer and threw it to him, them swept his legs out from under him as soon as his hands were occupied, kicking him across the room into some shelves and catching the computer before he'd hit the floor. Of course, then Morgan had to get brave and grabbed up a putter to attack the ninja with. The ninja put the computer down on the shelf beside them before engaging him, taking the putter off him and using it to knock him out in a less than twenty seconds so he landed on top of Chuck, just before the shelf (which the idiot had hung, of course) with the computer on it collapsed, smashing his computer into smithereens. The ninja gave up and left at that point, because what they'd came to get was now in a million (give or take a few hundred thousand) pieces across the floor.

After he'd turfed Morgan out and secured the apartment, he went into his room and initiated a video conference to Aunt Diane to find out what the hell was going on. Aunt Diane was actually General Diane Beckman, the head of the NSA, and his godmother. When Chuck's mother, Mary Bartowski, had been manoeuvred by the CIA into the position where she was trapped in Alexie Volkoff's organisation because Langston Graham made sure that Volkoff was told that she was a CIA Agent, Chuck's dad had gone more than a little nuts, largely ignoring their two children as well as everything else while he tried to track Mary's location down, one of the few things his dad did do right around that time was to contact Eleanor and Charles' godparents (two of Mary's oldest friends, Diane Beckman of the NSA and Bryan Mills of the CIA) and ask them to make sure that his children were kept safe. Diane and Bryan (Bry) pulled a few strings and tried to make sure that at least one of them (or failing that, Diane's partner, Roan Montgomery) was "in-country" to keep an eye on the kids at all times. Over the next couple of years, Chuck's dad slipped further and further away from his family, and reality, as he became more obsessed with finding Mary. The most stupid thing he'd done was loading the prototype of the Intersect (the project he was working on for Langston Graham) into himself after Chuck had accidentally loaded it and it appeared that he'd handled it fine. When Stephen loaded the Intersect prototype though, it screwed up his brain even more than it had been before, he spent the next year and a half or so trying to come up with a fix for what the Intersect was doing to his head, but in the end, given that he could feel himself coming apart at the seams, he told Diane that he was going to leave to try to save his kids from having to see him turn into a drooling vegetable, just before he up and disappeared.

Because the CIA (well, Langston Graham) was obviously hanging the kids out there as bait in an attempt to lure Stephen back (he didn't care if Stephen collapsed into a puddle of goo as long as he gave him a working Intersect before he fell apart), they had to be very careful about being seen around them, but "Uncle Bry" was one of the best agents there was, so he could slip in to see them at night without anyone knowing. They made sure that the kids were covered as far as money went and redirected any welfare/social services etc types who were sent their way, but it was still hard for them, the only contact that they had with their godparents was when Bry slipped in at night to see them, or they talked to them on the phone, and considering that Chuck was twelve and Ellie was still fifteen when Stephen left, that was really rough on them. In the meantime, Diane and Bry had managed to set up lines of communication with Mary in Russia, and used these to give Ellie and Chuck some contact with their mother (and Stephen as well when he sort of straightened himself out and came in from the cold). They kept this up for the next eight or nine years, watching over them, making sure that they had enough money and getting them into the academic streams that they wanted. In the months after he left, Stephen had managed to finish building himself a device that he called the governor that managed to regulate the on-going effect that the Intersect was having on his brain, it seemed to halt the degeneration and may have brought him back to a more lucid and functional state, but it couldn't repair the damage that he'd done to himself. When he was functional again he got in contact with Diane, and she used her family connections to get him engaged as a technology consultant in an obscure branch of the Defence Intelligence Agency's Science and Technology Directorate. Their father's state of mind was a large part of the reason that Ellie chose medicine, and specifically Neurology, quite early on as the path that she was going to follow. When Chuck chose to follow his father's path into engineering and technology when he was barely into highschool, they could tell that part of his reasoning was the same as Ellie's, to try and help come up with a fix for their father.

The Bartowski kids' brilliance showed up early, while they were still in highschool, and some of the ideas that Diane passed on from them attracted a lot of attention. In order to make use of their abilities and keep them safe, Ellie and Chuck were attached to a branch of the Defense Clandestine Service and received full training for working with them while they were still in their early to mid teens. What the government wanted them for was their analytic abilities, but they both got special ops training so that they could protect themselves in whatever situation they may find themselves in. Ellie was engaged with a little known DCS unit and often did work for the Analysis Directorate as well, while Chuck was also engaged with the same DCS unit and often worked for both the Science and Technology and Analysis Directorates. Over 99% of the people they were dealing with never saw or talked them, and certainly had no idea that they were teenagers, they'd have requests for analysis or solutions passed to them by their Case Officer (one Diane Beckman), and they'd return their results via the same path.

Chuck was a quite a renowned hacker by the time he was in his mid-teens, one of the primary differences with him being that he was usually working for the government and playing around in the most secure systems that the government had, they'd recommended that he operate under a pseudonym like most hackers, so he'd adopted the name The Piranha before he was fifteen. Among Chuck's more common jobs for the government were to try and "hacker proof" government systems or deal with the more serious attacks and backtrack them to locate the hackers, that was how he got the job of tracking down Roscoe, AKA Jeffrey Barnes. Roscoe was one of the first (and only) hacktivists who had the skills needed to get into highly secured systems, and before Chuck the government couldn't get anywhere near him, when Chuck tracked him down and they'd captured Roscoe, they were going to throw him in a black hole, never to be seen again, but Chuck managed to make the case via Aunt Diane that it would be far better to use Jeff's skills and ethics for good than it would be to bury him somewhere, just because he was better than just about everybody else the government had, so Diane made the proposal to Jeff to work with the Piranha in the cyber-security unit and he accepted. When Jeff met the sixteen year old kid who'd taken him down he was floored, but also very impressed, and he and Chuck hit it off straight away. Because Jeff was going to be working with Chuck and Ellie, he was attached to the same DCS unit that they were, and was also put through all the same training they were so that he could handle himself in situations that he may find himself in with the Bartowskis.

Around that time, someone else was attached to their DCS unit, a Marine captain in the NSA, John Casey, Casey was engaged in other missions most of the time, but Diane had access to pull him from anything but deep cover operations on short notice if she needed to use him to protect the Bartowskis, because they were regarded as a very precious commodity by the higher ups, even if those higher ups had no idea who they were. The team had been working together in that format for about five years when it acquired its latest member, it was the result of another hacker tracking job, this time it was The Lotus, AKA Anna Wu. Anna was the daughter of a Taiwanese diplomat who was studying in the USA and had become a US citizen to thumb her nose at her father, her problem was that when she did dubious things in the USA, the US citizenship meant that she was subject to USA rules and her father's connections and diplomatic status could no longer protect her. Government and military lackeys rarely change their spots, so when Chuck tracked Anna down and Casey captured her, they wanted to throw her in a deep, dark hole, just like they'd been planning to do with Jeff. Once again though, it was Chuck who put together the case that they'd be far better off using the incredible skills that Anna had than leaving her to rot in some dark hole, and given the two choices available, Anna was happy to join up. As with the others, Anna was put through all the relevant training, but she did have a step up in that she was already an accomplished martial artist in Kung Fu and a few other disciplines.

Just as Chuck was on the verge of getting his degree at Stanford though, they got a reminder that not only was the CIA still playing its games, but also that, for all his brilliance, Chuck was a sensitive young man with a heart that was easily broken. Chuck's roommate, Bryce Larkin, had fabricated a cheating charge against him and got him summarily thrown out of Stanford. Diane and the DIA hadn't done much checking into Larkin since he and Chuck had entered university and were placed together, so they'd clean missed the fact that he'd been recruited into the CIA in his freshman year at Stanford. Much to Chuck's disappointment, it was decided by the powers that be that, for his own safety, the best idea would be to go along with the game that was being played out and allow him to be drummed out and sent home in disgrace. Chuck reluctantly agreed to follow his orders on that matter, but went back to Stanford to make sure that his girlfriend (and hopefully soon to be fiancé) understood what the truth of the situation was so that they could still have their future together. That was what really kicked him in the guts, when he found out that in the week since he left she'd already moved on TO THE ONE WHO'D GOTTEN HIM KICKED OUT, and was already sleeping with Larkin, that was enough to make him fall apart.

That weekend was the first time that Anna got Chuck into bed, she was a lot more of a free spirit than Chuck was, and was planning on being there to help him "fuck the pain away". Anna was rather disappointed that Chuck wouldn't do anything with her that night, but she truly cared for the beautiful person that he was, and was content to spend the night (and any other night) kissing and cuddling with him and convincing him that there was absolutely nothing wrong with him, it was that bitch and the bastard that she was screwing who were flawed, not him. It was really Anna who had prevented Chuck taking a total nose dive at that point. With his academic and professional career scuttled, the powers that be hit him again when it was decided that Chuck and the others should hide in plain sight, so it was arranged for them all to get technical jobs at the Burbank Buy More, near where Ellie and Chuck lived, so they could build a cover as losers who were doing minor technical jobs. On top of everything else, Morgan Grimes was "working" at the same Buy More, and when Chuck turned up he decided that it was fate that they'd be bestest buddies forever, and wouldn't leave his side! Anna was less than impressed with Chuck (even though she knew that it wasn't really his fault) when she had both Morgan Grimes and Lester Patel sniffing around her and determined to have her from the minute she walked in the store, not to mention the other perverts like Harry Tang. Jeff didn't miss out, either, Patel decided to latch onto as a fellow sleaze hound (as that was the cover that they set up for Jeff), so he could hardly get away from the disgusting little maggot. Casey still remained on call for their protection, but he was still placed as an active field agent (and rapidly clawing his way to the top of the NSA agents), so he wasn't subjected to being part of their on-going cover life.

One of the first things that Chuck asked Aunt Diane was about what the hell Bryce Larkin had sent him, by that stage she had the full picture and could tell him that it was the CIA's latest version of the Intersect project that his father had started. Now given that Chuck knew quite well that the Intersect had almost melted his father's brain before he came up the the governor to keep things under control a little and he'd been having killer headaches all day, that news didn't make him feel one bit better, though it did when she told him that his father had pointed out that Chuck had loaded pretty much the same early version of the Intersect as he had in his head back when he was about nine or ten and it hadn't seemed to have any adverse effects on him. Neither of them had known about that little titbit before his father brought it up, so that certainly helped calm Chuck down and give him a degree of comfort that his brain wasn't going to melt down at the drop of a hat. Chuck did tell her about the strange information flashes he'd been getting since he'd loaded the Intersect (as that was what he did when he unlocked the email from Larkin), and she said that she'd run it past his father, he'd designed the Intersect, so he should be able to explain those.

With the Intersect discussion out of the way, he went on to Sarah Walker, and he went off at "Aunt" 'Diane, asking her why the hell she didn't prepare him better for what he was going to be meeting, fuckin' "rather attractive"? She was a goddess and if the fuckin' Intersect didn't make his brain melt down, seeing much more her probably would! How the hell could be expected to work HER when he could hardly put two words together when he was looking at her? He certainly wasn't prepared for her to laugh at that, or her response "You may be surprised, we were monitoring the whole thing, and from her expression when she was looking at you, especially when you were helping that little girl, which was really sweet by the way Charles, it looked like she could be putty in your hands, from her skin tone and heart rate just before she left, it looked very much like she was flustered and she left because she knew she was in no state to handle you." Chuck drew a breath, then said "I suggest you have another look at those recordings, because she was totally in control the entire time that she was there, I didn't have a chance against her." He looked down and then back up at the screen. "Anna was right, there's no way that I can seduce any woman, especially not an experienced agent at her level, we need to find another way to get the intel you want." "By the way, I saw Agent Walker again when I got home, she was pretending to be a male ninja and was stealing my computer, in the ensuing altercation initiated by Morgan Grimes I got enough things hitting me that I expect that I'll be covered with bruises by the morning, and I'll be sleeping with an ice pack on my sensitive bits." "What happened to you, what do you mean?" "Morgan kept throwing things at her and she kept deflecting them back into me with nasty accuracy, and she made sure one of the heavier items got me right in the family jewels, that doesn't sound like the actions of a woman who's as taken with me as you're trying to tell me. And after all that, the computer got smashed into smithereens and she ended up leaving with nothing other than the satisfaction of damaging me" When she laughed again he got pissed and asked her what was so fuckin' funny this time? She smiled at him as she told him "That's exactly what an agent as good as Sarah Walker is likely to do if she felt that she was compromised and that "feelings" may get in the way of her successfully completing her mission, if she thinks any feelings she may for you could possibly effect her ability to succeed, she's all the more likely to take out her aggravation on you, because she would regard it as your fault." "On the other thing that Anna raised, I'm afraid that we don't have any other way to get the intel, when you see her again, as I'm sure you will, just be your normal charming, sweet self, it works on far more women than you realize Chuck." "About the computer, you'll have to make a show of taking it in and trying to get it fixed, as with the money you supposedly get there's no way you can afford to just replace it." Chuck nodded, and with that signed off, took a box out to collect all the bits of his computer, cleaned up the rest of the damage in the living room and went to bed, because his head was still pounding.

 **A/N: So, any interest in having this story continued, or shall I just drop the idea?**


	2. Handling the Spy

**Usual disclaimer, no rights to any characters portrayed etc.**

When Chuck woke the next morning, he felt a bit better, a good night's sleep had rid him of the pounding headache that had plagued him the entire day yesterday, so now all he had to worry about was dealing with a job that made him want to stick a high speed drill in his ear, going through the cover angst of moaning about his destroyed computer before he built himself another one, oh, and finding out what the next step would be with the CIA killer who looked like an angel and who'd been sent after him for some reason that they didn't know yet, oh joy.

When he looked at the clock he realised that if he was quick enough he could have a shower and head off to work before Morgan turned up, so he grabbed some clothes and ran for the bathroom. After a quick shower he grabbed the box with the pieces of his murdered computer and took off, hoping that Morgan didn't notice how fast he'd reversed out and drove off when he saw him riding down the street. When his phone rang about ten seconds later he looked at it, expecting it to be Morgan demanding that he come back to get him, but it was Ellie, so he answered it on hands free. "I take it your rapid departure was to avoid being caught by Morgan?" Ellie's question came with a laugh that Chuck matched "Yeah, only just made it, he was coming down the street when I got in the car. Hey, have you been out to the living room yet?" "No, what's going on?" "We had a visitor last night, CIA assassin by the name of Sarah Walker pretending to be a ninja, she was there to get the computer that I received the email from Bryce Larkin on." "WHAT email from Bryce fucking Larkin?" Chuck grimaced, because he knew that he'd be having a long, in depth discussion with Ellie and Auntie D over this in the very near future. "The email that I received after my birthday party and was stupid enough to open, so it looks like I've managed to load the latest CIA version of Dad's Intersect program from the email into my head?" "WHAT?" "Look, I know that it was stupid, OK? I don't know, I guess I was hoping that I could get some answers about why he got me kicked out of Stanford and slept with Jill and everything, but it's done now, we can talk about it later but the good news is that Auntie D talked to Dad and he seems to think that my brain can handle it OK where others can't, so I should be OK." "OK, we'll talk about that one later, now what's this about a CIA assassin?" "When I got to work yesterday, I got a call from Auntie D to say that the agencies knew that Bryce had sent the email with the Intersect to me, and Director Graham had sent his "Wildcard Enforcer", by the name of Sarah Walker, to retrieve it from me, Auntie D also said that I needed to play her to find out what the CIA knows, and what they really want, like THAT's going to happen!" "What's that mean?" "Oh god, you should see her El, she's absolutely stunning, she's the most incredible woman I've ever seen!" Ellie was looking at her phone, because she couldn't believe what she was hearing, her little brother, the certified genius, had just told her that this woman was a trained killer who'd been sent after him, but he was obviously totally smitten with her! "OoooKkkk, this is apparently another thing that we need to have a talk about, but if you saw enough of her to be raving about her looks you obviously saw her when she wasn't pretending to be a ninja?" "Yeah, she came into the Buy More yesterday with the old "broken phone" excuse, luckily I got interrupted by a father who'd screwed up recording his daughter's ballet recital, because I can't put more than a couple of words together when I look in her eyes, I think I almost forgot my own name. Auntie D's delusional, she tried to tell me that Sarah ran out after that because she got flustered about me and she'd lost too much control to work me, but that's just crazy!" "OK, I'll talk to Auntie D about that, but what's this about the living room?" "Oh, she was in there with my computer when I came into the apartment with Morgan, yeah, I know that that was another one of my mistakes, anyway, fucking Morgan kept throwing things at her and she kept bouncing them back into me, got me right in the jewels with one of them, then when I went to try and talk her down and she kicked me across the room so I smashed into the shelves next to the door, then she put the computer down on the shelf near the hall, you know, the one that Morgan insisted on hanging for us? And it collapsed so the computer was smashed all over the floor, I cleaned up what I could but there could be more cleaning up needed, sorry, anyway, I've gotta go, I've just got to work and I've gotta put on a woe is me act because my computer can't be fixed, talk to you later, love you Sis." "Love you, be careful, especially if you do see her again, even if she is as hot as you say she is, don't forget she'd a trained killer!" "OK. Bye".

Ellie looked in on her sleeping boyfriend and then went down the hall to Chuck's room, going in and securing the door behind her, when she did that, just as Chuck had the night before, the room was made totally secure physically and electronically, not to mention totally sound proof. She brought up a video link to Auntie D to find out what the hell was going on. Her godmother filled her in on all the background about the Intersect and what they thought the CIA was up to, telling her that John Casey would be less than five minutes away from Chuck all day, then Ellie asked her about what Chuck had been saying about his supposed effect on the assassin. Auntie D laughed at that, telling her that she had to see it to believe it, and with that she played the the surveillance videos from the store. Ellie watched the woman's face in the videos and laughed herself, because Auntie D was right, this killer was rather taken with her little brother, her face as she watched him building the girl up so that she was ready to put a show on for her dance actually looked like a woman who's fallen hard for a guy, mind you, Chuck was right, too, Sarah Walker was simply stunning, she wasn't at all surprised when he kept tripping over his tongue whenever he tried to talk to her. After she showed Ellie the store videos, she showed her the recording from the "fight" the night before, as she analysed the video she could see that Chuck was correct, this "ninja" was obviously Sarah Walker trying to hide her identity, she actually felt sorry for her, it must have hurt to strap her boobs that tightly to try and convince Chuck that it was a man in front of him. She winced in sympathy for Chuck when she saw the objects being knocked back at him with devastating accuracy, especially the one to the jewels, and then that idiot hit him over the the head with a vase and shouted at him? She really wanted to damage that little tool, at least she didn't have to pretend to like him the way that Chuck did for his cover identity. She talked over the videos with her Godmother afterwards and found that she tended to agree with her, for whatever reason, Chuck had cracked the shell of Graham's top assassin, so if anyone could turn her or get her to leak information it was him. She agreed to call Chuck and tell him to stick with the plan, just before they rang off Auntie D told her that Casey would be bringing Chuck's birthday present over today, she'd been trying to think of a suitable present, and after they saw what happened to his computer she knew what to get him, so he was getting a new specced up server that would give him the processing power to do sort of the things he liked to do. When she got off the video conference she called Chuck to tell him to go along with the plan that Auntie D told him, because whether he wanted to believe it or not, she was right about the effect he had on that woman.

When Chuck got to work he took the box of his computer pieces in to get a second opinion from the guys for appearances sake. Jeff was having a great time winding him up, because he couldn't do a thing as Patel was there, so he just had to go along with it, but he did make sure that Roscoe understood that he'd be having a showdown with The Piranha soon, and they both knew who always won those showdowns. Jeff didn't care, because he was just having a great time winking like a crazy man and talking about Chuck getting strangled with nunchucks. Actually, if Jeff wasn't a computer genius, he could have easily made it as an actor because 99% of the time he had everyone convinced that he was a brain damaged sleazebag who was always off his face, he actually sold the act well enough to convince the genuine sleazebags like Patel. Because Jeff had been having fun playing up the possible scenarios, Chuck had to play along and head over to the Large Mart to make a show of buying some new locks to secure their apartment. When he was there though, he couldn't find anything so he went up to ask a guy if he knew where the locks were and he had another one of those information flashes which was telling him that this guy was a Serbian bomb maker, but when he tried to report the guy the woman who worked there obviously thought he was crazy, and he started to wonder if she was right? With that going through his head, he wandered back to the Buy More.

Chuck had his head in his hands muttering "I'm losing my mind" over and over when the service bell on the Nerd Herd counter right next to his ear was rung, given that that was the sort of shit that Morgan usually did he was on the verge of telling him to fuck off or hitting him, but he managed to control himself and only said "not now" as he reached over to grab his hand and stop him doing it again (as he'd just stand there ringing the bell again and again until he got the attention he wanted), the problem was that the hand he grabbed definitely wasn't Morgan's. He slowly raised his head to look at the lady customer who's hand he'd just grabbed and then jumped up, because it was Sarah Walker standing there with a strange and wistful expression on her face. (When she'd entered the store, Auntie D had started streaming the video to Ellie's phone, so they were both watching it in real time with big smiles on their faces.) Chuck couldn't believe the lame lines that Sarah was coming out with (and nor could the watchers), and he was starting to wonder whether Auntie D actually had something with what she'd been saying, but he still had problems getting through the scenario because Morgan fuckin' Grimes was standing behind him, butting in and answering for him whenever she said anything, so there was no way that he could control the conversation or the arrangements for their "date". He really wanted to put that idiot's head through a wall a that moment (he didn't realise that Ellie was begging Auntie D to arrange a fatal accident for Grimes while he was trying to enough control of the "date" to get his chance to get a kiss from this woman before she killed him, but at that moment he certainly wouldn't have argued with what Ellie was asking). During the day, he managed to get a chance to have a few minutes alone with Anna to ask her advice, because he'd spent more time interacting with Anna (as a close lady friend) than he had any other woman in the last five years. The fact that Anna basically said what Auntie D did ("Just be yourself, she obviously likes you so you'll be OK.") made him feel a lot better. The fact that Morgan followed him home and wouldn't leave so he didn't have a chance to talk to Ellie in private DIDN'T do anything to improve his mood or confidence, but Ellie basically ignored Morgan's existence and groomed Chuck to be the best presented Chuck he could be, sending him off with a bunch of flowers to set the tone. Their father had hacked into Sarah's phone signal, so they were listening when she called Graham about Chuck, and once again, Auntie D streamed it to Ellie's phone in real time, what Sarah was saying about Chuck made them feel better, Graham's responses, and especially the kill order if he tried to bolt didn't, but they were hoping that the woman that they were seeing and listening to would manage to override the agent, really hoping. At least they had one advantage as long as she didn't go for a headshot, they knew Chuck and were sure that even if she did follow orders to get him into bed, he would respect the woman over the job and refuse to go to bed with her as long as he thought she was doing it under orders, so the clothes that Ellie had given him to put on in the bathroom had a thin but effective layer of body armour built into them, if he was shot or stabbed anywhere from the neck down, he'd be protected.

When they got to the restaurant, Ellie and the team were listening into their conversation over the bugs on Chuck. Ellie, Anna and Auntie D were enjoying the fact that the couple were actually having a real, if incredibly awkward, discussion, but around the time they were having a discussion about the baggage that Sarah had (and Chuck made that cute offer to be her personal baggage handler, as he'd forgotten by then that every word they said was being listened to), alarm bells went off for Auntie D and she sent Anna a message to get into Sarah's records and find out about Sarah's last partner, it took her ten minutes to get into Sarah's secure files, still listening to the conversation, but the disgusted "Fuck!" she came out with when she found the relevant information cut across what they were listening to, and the other two women immediately asked what she'd found, their reactions when she told them that "Bruce" was actually Bryce Larkin matched hers. After the initial anger washed over her, though, Ellie came back to ask Anna to get more details, because what they were hearing sounded real. Anna dug the information out of her files that Sarah seemed to be winding things up with Bryce by the time he'd disappeared and went rogue, and while the info package she got on Chuck showed that he'd been room mates with Bryce, it didn't show anything about Bryce getting him kicked out of Stanford, or stealing his soon to be fiancé, or for that matter, any reference to Jill at all, so she was admitting that she'd just gotten out of a relationship (telling), and just covered up the fact it had been with someone that he'd known, as she hadn't been given any intel on what Bryce had done to Chuck, in that context it wasn't that bad at all, really. Yeah, she had been assigned here to get something from Chuck, but she was sharing things that she didn't need to, which implied that they were right about her feelings.

After the restaurant, they went to a club nearby, with a slight glitch as Chuck had another one of his information flashes about the General's motorcade on the way, but it was going OK until Casey decided to go all bull in a china shop. Casey had sent his allocated team in to monitor Chuck and Sarah in the club, and of course they were wearing their oh so covert G-Man suits, so Sarah made them straight away. When she pulled Chuck onto the dance floor, they started moving in and notified Casey that she was making a bolt with the target. Diane and the team could hear what was going on through Chuck's bugs and she tried to tell him to stand down, but he'd had the team change to a private channel and no-one else could get through to them. When Sarah and Chuck ran out of the club, Casey decided that she was trying to grab him for whatever purposes that the CIA had for him and that he had to stop her by any means necessary short of killing Chuck, so he ordered his driver to take out their car, then went after Sarah to stop her when she tried to get Chuck away from the wreck. At that point they saw why she was the CIA's top agent as she managed to take out Casey's SUV by activating the parking station's rising barriers with a throwing knife at the last moment then grabbed Chuck and took off again, calling for an extraction from the heliport on a nearby building. Casey went after them, but had changed back to the proper channel so the General told him to back off and try to get the CIA's plan out of her by threatening them on the heliport (they were still tapped into her phone so they got that as soon as she called for the extraction). Casey went through the motions but the situation changed when Chuck had another information flash that put all the clues that he'd been getting over the past couple of days together to reveal that the Serbian bomb maker that he'd seen was there to blow up the General. They went to the hotel and he identified the bomb, but there was nothing in the Intersect or his training on how to diffuse what the bomb maker had put together. While they were trying to work it out Chuck's phone rang and he answered it because he was totally stumped about what to do, and thought that the call may have been Ellie who managed to grab Morgan's phone to call him with key information, but Morgan (because who else would just decide to call him when he was in the middle of a date with a beautiful woman?) just started rabbiting on with crap, and he was about to hang up on him until the idiot reminded him that his computer was down due to the porn virus and that gave him an idea of how to stop the computer controlling the bomb, so he hung up then and convinced the two agents to let him try his idea, which worked. The General, Ellie and the team had been listening to everything via the bugs on Chuck and the General was giving Casey instructions on how to proceed (Ellie wasn't doing much other than trying to muffle her squeals of fear when she thought that Chuck was about to be blown up). Because Sarah Walker was obviously trying to come up with the best solution for Chuck, Casey was being told to put on a show but play along so that they could rope the CIA into assigning Agent Walker to the joint team with the NSA, they still had to find out what Graham's game was and they weren't about to trust anyone else from the CIA, but they had plenty of evidence that they should be able to trust Sarah Walker with Chuck, which made her the only safe choice. So, after a few rounds of play acting (with Chuck adlibbing because there was no way that he could have worn an earpiece without Sarah seeing it), they had a setup where there was a joint NSA/CIA team watching over Chuck, and Graham thought he'd pushed the General into the solution he wanted. Casey watched Sarah watching over Chuck through the night, and what Sarah said to Chuck in the morning when she went to him convinced them that they could make this work, for the team as well as for Chuck.

After he went home and they'd managed to get rid of Morgan and Ellie's boyfriend, they went into Chuck's room for a secure video conference, Auntie D filled them in on the plan, the visible team would be Casey and Sarah, and of course the CIA wouldn't know anything about any of the existing setup, Casey was going to be starting at the Buy More for his cover job (which was partly punishment for how close he came to screwing things up in the club and afterwards, and being out of communications during a key part of the operation because he'd changed channels from the external one he was supposed to be using), he'd also be "installing" security equipment in Ellie and Chuck's apartment and moving into the apartment across the courtyard to provide security. Agent Walker would be getting a cover job nearby and part of her cover would be to play Chuck's cover girlfriend to explain being around him all the time. Auntie D apologised for the fact that they'd have to keep them apart for the time being, but pointed out to Chuck that Sarah not jumping into bed with him or telling him everything he wanted to hear was actually a good thing, because that was proof that she wasn't working him, if she was treating him like a mark she'd do what it took to have him wrapped around her little finger so that he'd do anything she wanted, if she was holding back from him, as they were quite sure that she would, that was further proof of what they'd already seen, that she really did have feelings for him and she wasn't going to use him like that. She looked at him carefully, not the General at that moment, but his godmother, as she asked whether he understood what she was saying, that Sarah being distant was actually a good thing for him and their future? Chuck nodded, not exactly happy but he could see that missing out on instant gratification meant that he had a chance at something real in the future, and that gave him hope. (She, Ellie and Anna had discussed Sarah's relationship with Bryce and had agreed that it may put him off if he knew that the woman who he had obviously fallen for's last relationship was with the person who'd destroyed HIS last relationship, they knew that it would have to come out eventually, but they thought that it would be much better if they'd sorted out and hopefully acknowledged how they felt about each other before that bomb was dropped into their laps.)

Considering how aggressive and violent Casey was most of the time (he wasn't around all the time, but he'd been assigned to their protection where necessary for over ten years now, so they'd seen quite a bit of him), Chuck wasn't sure how much he was looking forward to a Casey who was locked into a stupid and aggravating minimum wage retail job, working with idiots for the most part, for the foreseeable future, he just hoped that he had enough chances to inflict mayhem on other people to keep him from exploding over the family (Ellie, Jeff and Anna were the family in Chuck's mind, Casey and hopefully Sarah were being added in now, and if Ellie decided to hang onto her boyfriend, Devon, he may be added as well).

One major issue with Casey was that he was a soldier, and he did everything by the book, so when he had orders he followed them to the letter, he didn't interpret anything, he only did what he was told. Auntie D hadn't handled Casey in this type of role before, so she didn't realise that he wasn't flexible enough to adapt to the different situations (she'd thought the first night was a one off occurrence, when in fact it was the pattern for him). That meant that when they were suspicious of each other about who blew up the NSA scientist who was brought in to test Chuck, Casey took the simplest path, went into attack mode and tried to convince Chuck not to trust Sarah. The problem was that that path almost ruined everything, Sarah ended up being captured by the scientist who was supposed to be dead because she was upset and off-balance due to the crap that came out at the dinner with Ellie (the one that was supposed to smooth things over and get them on the right path to each other), between Casey's influence and the crap that Morgan came out with. Chuck got Casey to help him rescue Sarah but ended up being captured himself and after they'd gotten through everything, they had another fight. When the General reviewed what happened, she was on the verge of yanking Casey from the operation, but unfortunately she couldn't because that would let Graham know that something was going on, so Casey got hauled off to DC via an F16 and thoroughly reamed out by the tiny General to ensure that he didn't screw things up like that again. When she had him sitting in her living room so that she was certain that they were safe from any surveillance, she made absolutely sure he understood the game plan for this operation, first, no matter what she or anyone else said over any communications, NO termination orders for Charles (or Ellie) Bartowski would EVER be carried out (she repeated that a few times to ensure that he understood that if anything EVER happened to Chuck on his watch, she would ensure that his body and reputation would be publicly shredded!), second his primary job was to protect and support Chuck and Ellie Bartowski, any orders to the contrary from anyone were to be ignored and reported to her, thirdly, while they did not trust the CIA, and in particular Langston Graham, Sarah Walker was important to the well being of Chuck, and as such, he would not attack or undermine her to Chuck again, anything he had to report in regard to Sarah Walker would be reported to her ONLY via secure communications, fourth, Anna Wu and Jeff Barnes were part of their core team and he would render protection and support to them where required, and lastly, if it was possible to keep Morgan Grimes away from the Bartowskis, the team and Sarah Walker, he was to do so to his best efforts. She made him go through these instructions a number of times to ensure that they had sunk into his head, then sent him back to Burbank in the F16 again.

On the way back to Burbank, Casey was a little confused, the orders he'd just been given appeared to contradict his previous orders, but there was no doubt that the General was deadly serious about what she'd told him, if he allowed any termination orders to be carried out on the Bartowskis his life and his good name were forfeit, if he allowed anything to happen to them he may live, but he'd be facing a shit storm, the orders about Walker confused him the most, the General was obviously linking Walker to Bartowski for some purpose, and he had to admit that from the start she was the champion for what was in his best interests, but just the idea of getting a hands off order on a CIA skirt was confusing, Wu and Barnes were a bit easier to understand, Barnes had been part of the team for as long as he had, and Wu had been in for over five years, they were unconventional and irritating, but he knew that they were damn good at the computer stuff and worked with Bartowski, so looking after them made sense. This was going to be the strangest and possibly worst assignment that he'd had, but he understood that Bartowski was a critical factor of national security, even if the idea that he had all the nation's secrets in his head was so very hard to grasp, and he would keep him safe.


	3. Mission

**Nancy, the title's just a play on the spy comedy Mr and Mrs Smith, as Chuck and Sarah are both in the game this time around, nuthin' clever ;)**

 **Usual disclaimer, no rights to any characters portrayed etc.**

Chuck hated the stupid cover job and his stupid cover life, because to keep up appearances he'd had to put in the application for the assistant manager's job, and Big Mike, the idiot manager, used that to throw a "test" at him, to get the Nerd Herd to fix the backlog of repairs within two days. He was halfway through explaining that to his team (and Patel) when Morgan came in and after wasting a few minutes crapping on about how he wanted to help but couldn't he got to the point, that Sarah was there (and made a sleazy comment about how good she was looking), which was all it took for Chuck to bolt. He was taken aback when Sarah told him to kiss her, because what Auntie D said about her keeping her distance if she actually had feelings for him came to mind, but when she said that they had to keep up appearances for the cover he breathed a sigh of relief, because that meant that she wasn't playing him, it was just part of the act that they were expected to put on. He was still intimidated by her beauty, so the best he could manage was a peck on the cheek, she seemed a little disappointed about that, then she grabbed his hand and dragged him off to the home theatre room with some comment about going somewhere more private, which had him wondering again until Casey turned up and it became clear that this was actually a briefing.

Sarah showed him some pictures and they asked him what he got from them, but he wasn't getting anything until Jeff came in to check up on them, using the excuse that he'd called dibs on the room for a nap (he really was a great actor), and a picture and reference to an art auction on the paper tucked under his arm provided the trigger to set off the information flash, when he mentioned the art auction and La Ciudad they suddenly looked interested. When Sarah and Casey had their briefing with the General and Graham about Chuck's flash, Auntie D had to hide her smile when she saw how protective Sarah was being of Chuck, saying that it was too dangerous for him to go on the mission, but unfortunately they did need him there to identify La Ciudad, so she had to make the call to say that he would have to go with them.

Over in Ellie and Chuck's apartment, Morgan had taken it upon himself to advise Ellie of Chuck's assistant manager application, so Ellie (and Chuck) had to put on a show about the dead end Buy More job being important, and the more crap Morgan came out with and the more he tried to make it all about himself, the more Ellie just wanted to stick a knife (or fork, or anything) through his eye, and Chuck was becoming inclined to agree with her. It would have been bad enough if it had stayed in the kitchen, with Morgan was making his pathetic attempts to convince Ellie that they should be spending time together mapping out Chuck's future, but as the argument went on and on it just got worse, they moved to the living room and Ellie tried to keep her responses terse in hope that Morgan would wind down and give up, but of course that just gave him a soapbox to keep lecturing from. Chuck just ignored them and sat there reading a magazine, waiting for Ellie to get tired of it and just throw Morgan out until, of course, Ellie's boyfriend decided to weigh in with his opinion of what Chuck had to do.

After all, the guy's role was basically nothing more than a walking sex toy for Ellie, and how the hell he could have managed to get through medical school was very suspicious, one thing was certain, there was no way that Chuck would ever let Devon work on him because "over my dead body" seemed as though it may well be a prophecy if that happened. As far as Chuck was concerned, he was happy that Ellie had someone who seemed to make her happy most of the time, but Devon was basically just a bigger, better looking version of Morgan, stupid, self centred, and coming out with a constant stream of sexual innuendo (when they were that subtle), so when he decreed that Chuck had to come with him for a weekend of white water rafting because he needed a near death experience to be a man, Chuck just stood up and went to bed. Of course, Ellie didn't miss the look he'd sent her way as he left and that made her feel guilty about bringing Devon into their lives, Chuck had to put up with Morgan for his cover life, because of their well known friendship history, but Ellie mainly kept Devon around because he was good in bed and she was still trying to make up for all the fun she'd missed out on while she spent her youth basically being a mother to Chuck. Yeah, Auntie D and Uncle Bry had done what they could to help them, but when it came down to it, it was Ellie who'd raised Chuck from the time he was six, pretty much by herself, and she was using Devon to make up for what she'd missed out on now.

Having to put up with morons like this telling either of them what to do drove both Ellie and Chuck around the bend, yes, Auntie D and Uncle Bry had pulled strings to make sure that they both got into the academic tracks for the careers that they wanted, but they'd EARNED the scholarships that paid their way through, and while they were doing that, Charles Carmichael and Eleanor Van Der Graaf (the cover identities that Chuck and Ellie had with the DCS) were working for the DIA, providing information analysis and strategic planning and what they provided was rated so important that they were constantly monitored with protective details watching over them from close by, and they'd had the NSA's best agent on call for additional protection for most of that time as well. The DCS unit that they were in was basically a think tank made up of the two of them (and sometimes their father) until Chuck added Jeff and Anna to the cyber-intelligence/security side that he handled. Ellie had been sixteen and Chuck had been thirteen when they were pulled into working for the DCS and decisions made from what they provided sometimes effected the nation. So, with all that, why were they expected to put up with being pushed around by idiots just to maintain the cover lives that some other idiots came up with?

For that matter, Mr Extreme Sports wouldn't have lasted through the training that both Chuck and Ellie had gone through when they were in their teens, very few women had completed the special ops training before Ellie went through it, and Uncle Bry had called in enough favours to get Chuck put through SEAL training on top of the same special ops training that Ellie did (Uncle Bry was worried that the only place that Chuck was comfortable and confident was when he was sitting at a keyboard, and he thought that it could help get Chuck out of his shell if he was accepted into and successfully completed training that few men could manage, as well as making him more able to look after himself and Ellie. He knew that Chuck would be able to handle it, because he'd seen what his mother was capable of in the years that they worked together, and could see that Chuck had gotten that from her. He also wanted Chuck to see what an incredible young man he was, to see what he, Diane and Ellie saw). Their godparents wanted to make sure that they were as safe as they could be, and as they'd both been agents (Uncle Bry still was), they'd thought that that level of training would be a good starting point for them to get the skill sets they needed to keep them safe. They knew that neither Ellie or Chuck would ever want to kill anyone or do most of the things that they were trained to do, and they didn't want them to be in that position, but they did want them to be able to do what they had to if and when the time came. Anyway, Mr Extreme Sports thought he was a man because he'd gone scuba diving, white water rafting and sky diving and looked down on wimpy Chuck, who had successfully completed the SEALs underwater demolitions courses, did numerous high speed extractions into a Chinook in exercises, and had more HALO and wingsuit jumps in his logbook than Devon had tame civilian ones, seeing Devon look down at Chuck angered Ellie more than it did Chuck, but it pissed him off too.

Casey was having a good time winding Chuck up about the mission and what he had to do, he knew that Chuck was a good man, he'd pulled into this as a kid (shit, he was still a kid when Casey was attached to his team a few years after he'd started) and he'd seen him do incredible things, but he was a brainiac and Casey just didn't understand him or his sense of humour, so when he had a chance to make him uncomfortable, well that was his way of having fun. The way Chuck panicked when he told him with a straight face that he'd have to be able to do the tango made his day. After his session with Casey, Chuck had to sit down with Sarah to organise his cover (though any excuse to sit down with Sarah and look at her worked for him), when Sarah asked him for a suggestion about a cover name, he instinctively told her the name that they'd used for his DCS identity, and then had to cover up with a story about how Carmichael was who he'd expected to be by now when he was at Stanford when she called him on it (all the while trying to remember just how well the name Charles Carmichael may be known in intelligence circles, but as far as he remembered, Auntie D nearly always identified him and Ellie as Agents Smith and Jones when she forwarded their reports to other areas, so they should be safe, that didn't stop him kicking himself, though). They actually had a good conversation about what had happened, one of the more comfortable talks that they'd managed to have to date. When he got home, he asked Ellie if she knew how to tango, and she was having fun ribbing him about it, but unfortunately Devon heard them talking and came out (in a towel, of course) and insisted on teaching him, which Ellie found hilarious, knowing that Auntie D would also be pissing herself laughing when she watched the video of course bothered him more than it did Ellie.

When they were in the limo, Chuck found Sarah's wording when she gave him a GPS locator watch (not knowing that he was implanted with DCS tracking and recording devices) interesting, hearing the way she said "you can't run away from me" felt nice. He didn't appreciate it at all though when he found out that Casey's cracks about needing to tango were all just a joke, but at least he saw that Sarah hadn't been in on the joke, that was the only upside to it. As he was entering the auction with Sarah, he managed to drop something on his shirt which meant that he had to go to the men's room to try and wash it off, embarrassing that, but while he was in there he had a flash on a man who came in and from the images that came up in the flash he presumed that he was La Ciadad. When he went to Sarah to tell her about it, she sent him to the bar (where Casey was) and went to engage the man. Chuck had no idea what was going on, so watching her as she worked the man hit Chuck in the guts, because being jealous about how close she was getting to another man made him forget what Auntie D had said, this was the way an agent would behave if she was working a mark, if he'd thought about that he would have realised that it just showed that Sarah WASN'T working him. Casey didn't have the time or inclination to worry about Chuck's insecurities when he saw Walker being taken away at gunpoint, so he just told him to stay and bolted after them. That left Chuck not knowing what the hell was going on (he hadn't looked at Sarah after he saw her playing up to the man so he didn't see the gun in her side when they led her away), so as he was just left alone feeling sorry for himself, he went for a wander.

As he was wandering around the auction, he saw the painting that La Caidad was interested in and had another flash, which included images of a container of plutonium hidden in the frame. As he was looking at the painting, a beautiful woman called Malena started talking to him, CHUCK stumbled when he tried to talk to a beautiful woman, so he decided to put on the suave Charles Carmichael to talk to her, and when she asked him to dance the tango with her, he just thought "Why the hell not?" and went with it. Aside from a bobble when he had to admit that he only knew the girl's part the dance seemed to go well, until the end when he'd flashed on a scar on her neck and realised that SHE was La Ciadad. At that point, Charles Carmichael disappeared and he was back to Chuck Bartowski, who was way out of his depth with either the beautiful woman or the arms dealer. Of course, at that point Morgan managed to stick his foot in things again because he'd called the function to get CHUCK BARTOWSKI on the phone and kept screaming that it was Chuck Bartowski while he was trying to tell the woman with the phone that he was Charles Carmichael. An idiot on the phone screaming that his name was Chuck Bartowski obviously ended any chance of Chuck managing to talk his way out of things and Malena had her henchmen drag him up to her room to find out exactly who he was. After a few threats of torture (throwing a knife between his legs and waving that knife under his face while she had a tray of other knives out) and threatening to throw him off the balcony, Chuck came clean on his name and told her that the frame had been changed on the painting, knowing that she was planning to kill him anyway because he'd seen her face. Chuck had to hold out and stick to the cover identity as long as he could before he acted himself, because if Sarah saw him in action it would blow everything.

By that stage Casey had caught up with the ones who took Sarah and after a standoff at gunpoint, they'd identified themselves as MI6. When Sarah and Casey ran back to the function, Chuck was gone. They tracked him with the locator watch (the other devices were better but they couldn't tell Sarah about them just yet) to Malena's room, where they took out the guard outside the door then had a shootout through the door with Malena's men, but Malena managed to get away. If Chuck hadn't been acting sorry for himself (because he had to play the pathetic weakling) at that point he may have seen how worried about him that Sarah really was, but he was locked into playing the role and missed it. When he got home, Ellie wanted to talk about how things were going, but had to be careful about what she said because they didn't know who might be listening, and of course any chance to talk finished when Devon decided to come out and just join in the discussion, so Chuck made it obvious he couldn't speak in front of HIM and was about to go to bed before Ellie told him that Morgan had been calling all night and he was apparently locked in the storage cage? This was the way their lives were now, they were surrounded by "civilians" and because of that, they had to stick to the scripts that someone in the cover bureau had created, it was bad enough that they had to do this at work, but having to do it at home because someone who didn't know them at all decided that they needed to fit into a given image drove them crazy.

When Chuck had let Morgan out he decided to stay and finish the rest of the repairs, so he didn't go home that night. As was quickly becoming the way things were for Chuck, it wasn't long before Malena's men turned up in the store looking for him, so he tried to hide, but first he had Tang pointing him out to the ones looking him, then Morgan, death by Buy Moron wasn't the way he'd ever wanted to go, but it was looking more and more likely. Casey took out the one he saw in the store while Chuck tried to trap the other one when he followed him out to the cage (once again, he had to play the role in case he was seen), and Sarah went after Malena when she recognised her from Chuck's description. It was close but Casey managed to get the two inside before they got Chuck and Sarah got La Ciadad (Casey's were bigger, but La Ciadad was much more dangerous, so they were even).

That night, Chuck and Ellie had a chance to talk a little before Sarah arrived for dinner (still being careful because of the listeners), and she managed to boost his confidence a little (which had dropped right down when he watched Sarah working the MI6 guy) so he was OK when he went to answer the door. When he opened the door to find both Sarah and MORGAN there, though, he was surprised, and then a little angry when Morgan started into a pile of crap about "I thought we had plans" and "What's she doing here?" He shared a look with Sarah and she was giving him the indication that she didn't mind, so he let him come have dinner with them. (Though if he'd seen the way that Ellie was gripping the knife in her hand or the expression on her face when she heard Morgan's voice he may have given a different answer.) After dinner, as he was walking Sarah out, she tried to compliment him on what they'd achieved, and after a bit of haggling he accepted her compliment, managing to get up the confidence to make the quip that if they were really dating he'd have to kiss her at that point, they had a bit of semi serious banter about that and she looked like she was about to kiss him, but the lines of the job were holding her back, along with the fact that she could see Morgan hovering just off to the side getting ready to interrupt them again, so she left. They had a long way to go and a lot of obstacles to overcome before they'd be able to sort out things between them.

The next week, things got a little strained (once again, due to Morgan) during a game of Know Ya! at Casa Bartowski when Morgan insisted on correcting everything that Sarah said and made a big thing about going on and on about what Bryce had done to Chuck. Given that that had been purposely left out of the information that Sarah had been given about Chuck, this was news to her, and it left her off balance, as that it was the last person that she'd had any sort of relationship with who had done this to Chuck, she just didn't know how to handle this. On top of that, she was sure that they were being watched, and that was making Agent Walker kick in. As Chuck was walking her out, they tried to talk over a few things, including Bryce, but she didn't know how to tell Chuck that she'd been in a relationship with Bryce when she was still trying to work out what she was feeling for Chuck, so she evaded Chuck's question with what he would regard as a lie, and of course their talk got cut of AGAIN by Morgan barging in with some some stupid flimsy shit about "Oh, you meant walk Sarah to her car, makes sense, I don't have a car", which finished any chance they had of trying to talk about anything.

Watching this from her home in DC, Aunty D had to wipe a tear away, would they ever get a chance? She was also seriously reconsidering her refusal of Ellie's request that she arrange for that little troll to be made to disappear, perhaps permanently (after all it couldn't be considered killing a person because THAT was something certainly a long way short of a human being). Previously she'd just seen him as irritating, but as Chuck had never been close to being interested in anyone since that bitch in Stanford dumped him for Bryce fucking Larkin (right after Larkin framed him to get him kicked out), she hadn't seen the depths that this poor excuse for a human being would go to to sabotage any chance for her godson to be happy before. Yes, Sarah Walker was damaged goods, but she was an exceptional woman, one of the rare few who could possibly be worthy of Chuck, and she obviously cared for him, watching the surveillance videos (which she did every night) , there wasn't a day that went by that Sarah didn't give some clear indication of her affection and concern for him, so if it took getting rid of one disgusting little troll to give them a chance, well that was something she was starting to seriously consider.

When Sarah go back to her hotel room, she found out who'd been watching them when she was attacked by an intruder in black while she was getting ready for a shower. After they'd trashed the room and almost murdered her fish, she pulled off the intruder's ski mask to confirm that it was who she thought it was. Sure enough, it was Carina (as they confirmed the names they were currently using), and after their usual banter whenever they caught up with each other, she let Sarah know that they were going to be working together again. Sarah was happy to see her oldest friend again (they'd known each other since they were teenagers at The Farm), but she didn't stop to think about what effect Carina could have on another aspect of her life, possibly because she was trying not to think about the effect he was having on her at the moment.

The next morning, Chuck got hit with a flash when he walked out into the courtyard and saw the redhead standing there, so he rushed over to Casey's to find out why there was a DEA agent there. Casey and Sarah were getting a briefing when he barged in, and after they put away the pistols they drew as he came in the door they turned back to the screen. When he saw the screen out of the corner of his eye, he could see Auntie D looking nervous, probably worried that he'd slip up and let the cat out of the bag (not an unfair assumption, while he'd been an analyst for the DCS since he was thirteen and had extensive field training, as they'd found out on the previous mission, he wasn't an agent, and hardly knew how he was supposed to act in the field), so he pretended not to see the screen until Graham spoke and then asked "Who are they?" When she saw that he was on the ball, Auntie D looked a little less nervous and went into their instructions to help Carina steal a diamond from a drug transporter, Peyman Alahi. After Sarah and then Casey tried to argue against Chuck being exposed to Carina and the dangers of the field, the team had its orders and they went out to talk to Carina. They'd just made introductions when Morgan barged in AGAIN, trying to be suave but just coming off like the idiot that he was, and with that they headed off to "work".

At the Wienerlicious, Carina was trying to get information out of Sarah (about Chuck in particular, as she'd caught the vibe from them that something was going on) and brought up Bryce. Sarah looked upset when Carina brought him up, but it wasn't for the reasons that Carina was probably thinking, it was because she suddenly realised that she hadn't really thought about him other than the funeral or when someone mentioned him since she got here and felt a little guilty, if he'd really meant anything to her, wouldn't she be thinking about him a lot more than that? And for that matter, it worried her that she was more concerned with deflecting any interest that Carina had in Chuck, Chuck wasn't stupid enough to give out any information that he shouldn't, so why was she worried about keeping Carina away from him? When Sarah wouldn't tell her anything about Chuck, Carina said that she'd have to ask him then and took off, and the stupid little turd who was the supervisor there stopped Sarah from going after her.

Over at the Buy More, Morgan presumed that Carina had come over to see him, and even when she blew him off, he was yammering at Chuck that he HAD to fix him up with her, he came out with all sorts of stupid crap, but the line that almost sealed his fate when Chuck's godmother heard it was "If you can get Sarah, man that means that just about anything's possible." When Auntie D heard that, she just about picked up the phone to order Casey to end the little rodent then and there. After everything that Chuck did for that little bastard, he had the gall to say THAT to him? It was almost enough to make Jeff drop his act, too, when he heard that, but luckily the vacant stunned look was sort of his "normal" cover face, so when it came up naturally it didn't stand out that much. Unfortunately Sarah was concentrating on keeping Carina away from Chuck, rather than Morgan, so when Chuck came to her with Morgan's ridiculous request, practically begging her to say "no", she only saw it as a way of occupying Carina and told Carina that she had to do it as a condition of the team's support, given that Carina had been forced to do far more disgusting things than Morgan in her career, even him carrying on like a retarded five year old right in front of her wasn't enough to stop that happening.

At Chuck's that night, Chuck could tell that Carina was winding up Sarah about some dating issues, but couldn't work out what she was getting at (when it came to relationships, Chuck had very little experience, he'd played around very little in highschool and college before he started going out with Jill because leading a double life working for the government the way he was made those sort of things difficult, and he hadn't done anything since Jill dumped him for Bryce). When the pizza arrived, he had to put up with Morgans' stupidity about how "into him" Carina was, and then his tantrums when Chuck was less than 100% in agreement with that idea. By the time they put the movie on he was totally over this shit, so when Morgan kept asking Carina questions about where she'd been, he answered for her and told him to shut up, not noticing the looks he was getting from Carina and Sarah after that because he was refusing to look away from the screen. After they'd all gone home (supposedly), Morgan kept calling him over and over and over again to ask whether she'd called yet and wanting to rabbit on about it, no matter how many times Chuck hung up on him, until Chuck got another call that was supposedly a Nerd Herd support call.

He should have turned around and walked away when the door opened and Carina was standing in front of him in a robe, but for all his brilliance, Chuck was still a trusting soul and came in, asking her where the computer was. She hit him with the fact that she knew that he was more in the game than they'd said because he'd need a high level of clearance to know that she'd been in Argentina and tried to get him to loosen up and tell her things. When her outright attempt at seduction didn't work, she thought she'd see whether she could separate him from Sarah (who was obviously the reason that she didn't have a chance to seduce him) by bringing up her boyfriend (well supposedly dead ex-boyfriend, but she didn't feel the need to add that in). From Chuck's reaction when she said "Bryce Larkin, her boyfriend", she knew that she was on the right track, she may not have used Bryce if she knew Chuck's history with him and just how much damage that would cause (hopefully it would have made a difference if she'd known), but she was ignorant of the background between them. The problem with that was, while she may have turned Chuck off Sarah a little, it didn't do her any good because he just shut down and left after that. When Chuck got home, he was sorely tempted to hack into Sarah's files and find out the truth about what Carina said, but he couldn't bring himself to breach her privacy like that, so he just went to bed and stewed over the matter for the rest of the night.

The next day when Sarah was trying to brief Chuck about the mission, he was distant and distracted, but he wouldn't tell her what was going on and it worried her, because he'd never been like this with her. When she told him that she needed him to stay by her side when they were on the mission because Carina couldn't be trusted he was relieved because he thought that that meant that what Carina had said the night before about Sarah and Bryce was a lie, and he started opening up to her about getting the service call from Carina and going to her room, along with the fact that she'd said some things about Sarah when he was there, but when her face fell when he repeated what Carina had said the doubts came back and when she basically confirmed that it was true, he shut her out and left. When they got to Alahi's mansion for the mission, it was obvious that Carina's plan to drive a wedge between Chuck and Sarah had worked all to well because Chuck wouldn't talk to Sarah, and Carina made sure that she planted a few more barbs to set him up to react just the way she wanted, so that when they were done and were escaping with the diamond, the doubts that Carina had planted in Chuck's mind made him give up the diamond to her over Sarah and she bolted with it, leaving them to face the music. When they got out of there and went back to work, things were quite cool between Chuck and Sarah because she was as angry with him as he was with her, so after work she sent him home when she went to see what happened to Casey, who'd disappeared when he went after Carina.

Of course, nothing ever went easy for them, when Sarah found Casey, Alahi and his men took them because they'd come looking for Carina to get the diamond. Chuck found the diamond where Carina had planted it in Morgan's bag when she saw Casey and called Sarah, only to be told that she'd been taken and she needed him to find Carina and get her to bring the diamond. Just as he was about to head out to trade the diamond for Sarah, he was faced with a black clad figure and took them down (passing it off as a lucky shot), only to find that it was Carina. They argued about going after Sarah, and Carina couldn't work out how he managed to guilt her into changing her mind and coming along to save Sarah, but he did. When they got to the hotel, Chuck had to go back to pretending to be defenceless because he couldn't show any skills in front of Sarah (he would have done whatever necessary to save her, but this way he could keep up the cover), but Sarah and Carina were quite capable of taking down Alahi's men without him, and he did manage to get the diamond couriered off to their bosses in DC with a bit of quick thinking that was pure Chuck.

In the clean-up afterwards, he shot Carina down again when she tried one last time to get him to come back to her room, but her parting gift floored him when she confirmed what Auntie D and Ellie had been telling him, that Sarah had feelings for him (well, what Carina told him was that he was what Sarah wanted). That night he went to Sarah's with a pizza (vegetarian, no olives) to talk about what happened, and they talked a little, but much as Sarah wanted to talk to him, she mainly confirmed what Carina had been saying the previous night, that field agents can't share details about themselves.


	4. China Doll

**Usual disclaimer, no rights to any characters portrayed, yada, yada.**

Because he had to maintain two layers of cover life, Chuck had to not only agree to an "Evening with Morgan" with his least favourite idiot, he also had to talk Sarah into going along with it (trying to ignore all the crap that Morgan came out with about Sarah needing to prove to HIM that she was good enough). While he was giving Sarah the story, Casey saw his chance to throw in a few barbs (knowing the truth under the story and that Chuck couldn't call him on it without blowing his cover), so he came up to say that being stuck in the Khyber Pass for months wasn't as bad as the idea of being stuck with them for the night, but Chuck ruined his fun by giving him as good as he got, so he just left it with the quip that he'd rather be bled from the liver by Afghani warlords than have dinner with them and left chuckling, the saving grace though was that at least Sarah was having fun with Chuck about it. The night didn't start well, aside from what was coming out of Morgan's mouth, he kept touching Sarah, poking at her stomach and putting his arm around her, so Chuck had to fight down the urge to rip that arm off and beat him with it. Sarah looked concerned when Morgan was going on about needing his fix, but when Chuck made it clear that they were talking about fireworks she'd relaxed. It looked like they may get out of the whole thing at one point, because the Bamboo Dragon was closed for a private function, but unfortunately Morgan knew where there was a key for the kitchen door and slipped them in the back. While they were waiting for Morgan to organise the food, Chuck saw the tattoo on the forearm of one of the waitresses and had a flash that told him that she was actually Mei-Ling Cho (well, to be more accurate Cho Mei-Ling, but he told Sarah the more common version), who was Chinese Intelligence. So he and Sarah had to head to Casey's to report it.

At Casey's, he came up against Casey's need for protocol and "orders are orders" mentality, because to Casey the need to chase up any and all details about why the PRC's top spy was in the USA for the first time overrode the need to maintain his cover (well one layer of his cover life) and he didn't get back to their apartment until after Ellie had gone to bed. The next morning he saw Ellie in the kitchen, and he knew that only a very small part of her being pissed at him was an act, because she did genuinely loathe Morgan for a plethora of very good reasons, and of course the little turd wouldn't leave until she threw him out so she could go to bed, so she was stuck alone with him until nearly midnight. Ellie loved her little brother and understood the issues of a cover life (they'd been living one for half their lives, more for Chuck), but sticking her with that little turd who still pushed his infatuation on her all night was certainly grounds for serious anger! He did manage to get a little smirk out of her when he came up with the excuse of Sarah's spastic colon though.

He had a bit of fun winding Casey up (and give Sarah a laugh that she tried to hide) on the stakeout that night by ordering a food delivery to the car, but the good mood went south quickly when his trusting nature led to him actually helping Ben Lo Pan because what he saw was an old man in a wheelchair rather than a Triad boss. He was too surprised to do anything when Lo Pan's men brought someone out and threw him in the trunk of the limo, then Mei-Ling came out and after failing to stop the limo leaving confronted Chuck about what happened, telling him who Lo Pan and the man in the trunk were. Chuck stopped Sarah and Casey attacking Mei-Ling when they arrived and she got away while he held their attention. On the home front, the only thing that saved Chuck was that when Morgan came over while they were out, Ellie had managed to get him to leave, if he'd stayed there probably would have been sibling blood spilt.

In the morning, Casey and Sarah met him when he left the apartment and told him that they'd received confirmation that the man in the trunk was in fact Mei-Ling's little brother and that she was there on a rogue mission to save him, but both of them refused to go against orders and do anything to help her fix the situation which to Chuck was his fault, and that didn't sit too well with Chuck.

Chuck's guilt over Mei-Ling's brother added weight to his wish to help her when she contacted him at work during the day, and he was glad, because this gave him a chance to fix his error. He grabbed Casey and they headed over the the Weinerlicious so that he could make a pitch for helping Mei-Ling if she gave up something, letting Sarah bring up the concept of Mei-Ling defecting before he let them know that Mei-Ling had contacted him and she was obviously in the store when she did so. They ran back to the Buy More to try and catch her, but couldn't find her anywhere. Just as they gave up the search Jeff came up to tell Chuck about a delivery that had to be signed for out back (he and Anna had been out of the loop for all of this because the CIA/NSA monitored surveillance on Chuck made it hard to talk to them there, and Casey hadn't felt the need to include them in the developments, so he didn't know that anything was in play), but when Chuck went out to sign for it, the "delivery lady" turned out to be Mei-Ling. When Chuck tried to explain the deal that they came up with to help save her brother if she defected (framing it in terms that his cover identity would use while being held at gunpoint) she started to argue, then Casey and Sarah turned up. With Sarah and the surveillance there, they couldn't just come out and give her a straight offer, so Chuck had to stay within bounds of the "civilian nerd" persona to negotiate the agreement with a gun being held to his head, but it worked.

That night, Sarah, Casey and Mei-Ling were in Casey's apartment planning the incursion to rescue Mei-Ling's brother, Lee, while over in their apartment, Chuck and Ellie were going through their cover life script for their "mother's day" dinner (they both made a mental note to track down the idiot in the cover bureau who came up with that one and make them suffer at least as much as they were). Chuck got a call from Casey to come over and help so Chuck had to come up with an explanation to hide one cover life from the other cover life, and after rolling her eyes, Ellie couldn't resist winding up the listeners, so she gave him her "special" guacamole to take with him, making a point of dragging out the dialogue about making sure that Sarah didn't have any because of her spastic colon. When he got over there he got a chance to assist on the rescue, and framed it in a way that Sarah had to agree that he was needed (without Sarah there he would have just insisted).

When Sarah, Casey and Mei-Ling went in to rescue Lee, the operation seemed to go OK at first, but once they were in there it quickly went pear shaped, their taps into the security system were cut and an overwhelming force turned up to take them. It was fairly obvious that Lo Pan had been tipped off, but that was something to follow up later, Casey was a meticulous professional and made sure he sent a message to Chuck to take off (as the General had instructed him quite clearly, it WAS his job to protect Chuck, and it fitted their cover life as well), but knowing Chuck the way he did, he was pretty sure that he'd ignore the order, which of course he did. Chuck followed the van back to the Bamboo Dragon and then had to stop for a minute to work out how the hell he was going to get them out without breaking his cover, but it was when he saw the black market fireworks peddler that his plan came together. Chuck had ignored the call from Ellie, but Ellie followed through and left the expected message, just before Morgan walked in, having come in via Chuck's window again, so she had to talk to him. The whining about never seeing Chuck any more was expected, but when he told her that they had to force Chuck break up with Sarah, Ellie entertained a brief fantasy of caving his skull in with a meat tenderiser mallet. After that she got her anger under control and forced herself to work on their cover maintenance by listening to all his whining and make appropriate responses for a while. Meanwhile, Chuck lit a bag full of black market fireworks and dumped it into the front seat of the Bamboo Dragon's van parked right out front, using the commotion caused by the van pretty much exploding to draw Lo Pan's men out the front of the restaurant while he snuck in the back to free the others, hiding out with Lee Cho while the three agents took out Lo Pan's men when they returned. Even though he was supposed to be cowering, he decided that he could get away with stopping Lo Pan from escaping because that was something a "civilian" could do. Of course, when Lo Pan and co had been processed and he got home, he and Ellie had to have another cover maintenance discussion because he'd "let her down" again.

The next day, Mei-Ling said goodbye to her brother and he went back to China where he'd be safe, and when Chuck asked her to sign the customer satisfaction form she walked with him over to the Nerd Herder to have something to rest it on as she signed it. As she was pretending to read the form she quietly asked without looking at him "Do they know that you're Agent Carmichael?" Chuck's immediate response was to plead ignorance, but a look from her as she pretended to ask him a question made it clear that denials would be fruitless, so he leant in and pretended to answer her question "Casey does, Sarah doesn't, how did you know?" "I didn't at first, but I realised that I was recognising your patterns the more you spoke and the more assistance you gave, you've caused the People's Republic a lot of trouble over the years when you've thwarted their plans so many times, but your brilliance has created quite a fan club among those bright enough to understand what you've done." "Do I need to worry about you knowing?" "No, I'm part of your fan club, though obviously not as much as she is (looking briefly at Sarah), and you helped me save my brother when you didn't need to, you're a good man Agent Carmichael" "Chuck" "Chuck (she smiled), if there's any way that I can assist you, please let me know." "How would you feel about working with me and my team in the future?" That surprised her enough to look at him. "Your government would never let a defector work with someone as important as you." "It's possible that we could arrange it, and it would be safer having you work with us than have you somewhere else, if that's a possibility that you'd be interested in?" "If it is indeed possible, it would be an honour to work with you." "Great, I'll see what we can arrange." Mei-Ling finished signing the form and handed it back to him, saying "Thank you Chuck." Chuck bowed with a smile as he took the clipboard, saying "Thank you Mei-Ling."

Casey and Sarah took Mei-Ling away to be processed, and as soon as they'd left, Chuck pulled his phone out to call Auntie D and tell her that he wanted Mei-Ling to be looked after, and once she'd given up the information to seal the deal, he wanted her to be added to their team (the DCS one, not the joint NSA/CIA one, of course). At first she tried to argue that they couldn't swing it, but she was quickly reminded how persuasive and firm he could be when he really wanted something (like the times he got Jeff and Anna added to the team instead of sent to prison), so she capitulated with a sigh and told him that she'd need the file with the supporting information and arguments as soon as possible so that she could initiate presenting the case to their superiors. Chuck promised to get it to her as soon as he could and after adding the fact that an investigation needed to be made into who had tipped off Lo Pan that they were going in to rescue Mei-Ling's brother, signed off with his usual "Thanks Auntie D".

Back at the Buy More, things out front were quiet so Chuck arranged for Lester to man the service desk while he, Jeff and Anna went out to the cage to catch up on the backlog of repairs. Of course Chuck knew where all the "official" recording devices were, so over time he'd shuffled the tables they used for repairs about until they were situated so that they could have their backs to the cameras and the combination of a machine with a noisy power supply and white noise generators was enough to prevent the mics picking up what they were saying. They worked on the repair jobs as they talked so nothing looked too much out of the ordinary. The first thing he brought up was the operation that they'd just completed with Mei-Ling, including the fact that she'd defected as her part of the arrangement and that he was making a case to add Mei-Ling to their team. Jeff was mortified when he found out that he'd sent Chuck out to an enemy agent, but Chuck pointed out that no-one had kept them in the loop so they had no idea what was going on, saying that he'd be making arrangements to ensure that Casey DID keep them in the loop from now on, to make sure that this type of thing didn't happen again. Once Chuck had mollified Jeff's feelings of guilt, Anna went to town on him, because he'd put himself at risk several times just in this operation alone, he wasn't an agent, he wasn't trained to be a spy and he was much too valuable to be taking risks like that!

Chuck smiled when Anna went off, he'd known that she'd react like this because Anna was his closest friend and she worried about him. Jeff was a good friend and had known him a lot longer, but Anna was the only one close to his own age that he could really relate to. He also knew (because they'd talked about it at the time) that she would have liked to be more than friends if it was on the cards, but she'd accepted that that was one thing that they couldn't have. It had been tough on Anna since they started this operation with the CIA, because it had been easier accepting that she couldn't be with Chuck when what they had was the closest he was to anyone (as it had been ever since that bitch at Stanford had ripped his heart out the way she did), but since Sarah had turned up she could see the feelings he had for her. The fact that Sarah obviously reciprocated those feelings made things both better and worse for Anna, she was happy for Chuck but also a little jealous of the way Sarah had claimed his heart so quickly.

While they had a chance to talk, he asked them how they were handling carrying the extra load of the team's normal work, because with him being under almost constant surveillance with this operation with the CIA, he couldn't work on their projects as openly as he needed to, so while he was getting some time in in the early hours of the morning (they'd set up windows where the recordings were looped), Jeff and Anna (or more to the point, Roscoe and Lotus) were having to cover more of the workload than they had before. They both assured him that they were handling it fine, and Anna asked him with a laugh how he was enjoying getting all his exercise in during those morning time windows (he had to maintain a reasonable exercise regime to keep in shape, but the bumbling nerd cover that had been created for him didn't allow for that, so he had to do all his exercise and training in secret, and now that he was being watched by the CIA and NSA most of the time, the only chance he had to do that was during the time windows when the recording devices were disconnected, the only exercise he could possibly do openly was go on morning runs with Ellie's toy, but he'd have to back off there anyway because he'd have to keep up appearances as the bumbling nerd). He just mock glared at her and asked her what she thought he was always tired from? She opened her mouth to give the obvious response, but shut it when she decided that she didn't want to go there. Chuck knew what she was thinking and reached over to give her a hug, she was still, and would continue to be, his closest friend, and he didn't like to see her hurting.

Of course, being stuck in the Buy Morons' world provided a never ending supply of aggravation and frustration, one day Chuck got a call at home from Big Mike screaming at him because Morgan was supposed to be working a double shift but hadn't turned up, and of course it was Chuck's fault in Big Mike's eyes, so on top of everything else, Chuck had to track Morgan down in his time off and get him to the Buy More. Chuck was tempted to just tell Big Mike that he had no control over Morgan and suggest he just fire him, but of course the cover life that had been created for him wouldn't let him do that because Morgan was supposed to be his "best" friend, so he bit his tongue and told Big Mike he'd find him. Luckily it wasn't too hard to find someone who had stopped maturing before ten, and Chuck headed for the games arcade, he wouldn't have had to actually go there if Morgan had answered his phone, but of course he wouldn't do that. When Chuck found him he tried to explain to him that he had to get to work if he wanted to keep his job, but he was more excited about the chance of winning a whole ten dollars off a guy who'd been beating him all week on Guitar Shredder and refused to leave. When the other guy turned up and they started the game, Chuck flashed on him, Laszlo Mahnovski's records had been salted with fake wanted posters to hide the real reasons for him being held, so that was what Chuck saw in the Intersect. He tried to tell Morgan that Laszlo was dangerous and get him away from the guy, but of course Morgan was too stupid to listen. Laszlo wasn't stupid though, and as soon as he heard what Chuck said he checked him out, recognising the CIA locator watch, so he dropped the plastic guitar and took off. Chuck went to look for him and got grabbed by Laszlo who wanted to know how many agents were after him, telling him that he knew the CIA watch because he'd designed it, but at that point Morgan pushed in gloating that Laszlo owed him ten bucks and Laszlo just took off.

Chuck called the information through to Sarah and she said that she'd see him at home after work. When he got home he asked whether she was there, and of course Devon couldn't resist making a crass comment when he said she was waiting in his room to give him a surprise, not at all fussed about the disgusted look Ellie gave him when he did so. After Sarah had filled him in on what was happening about Laszlo, he asked her to stay for a while, explaining what the others were thinking about the reason for her waiting in his room. Things were a little uncomfortable for a bit while they were sitting there, then he thought to ask why she was waiting in his room, and she showed him the picture she'd had made up of them together at Comicon, which of course led to a discussion about the picture being fake like their relationship (the crap of the day hadn't put Chuck in a good frame of mind), but Sarah's response and tone when he sadly said that they looked like a real couple "Well we are a real couple, we're just a different sort of a couple." stirred a bit of hope in his chest.

Of course, after almost losing his job for ditching work to play Guitar Shredder the day before, Morgan found a new way to try and get himself fired the next day, setting all the screens on the wall to display the output from the camera he was using to record a female customer's underwear. The old lady that Chuck was serving almost had a heart attack when she saw all those images up there and he had to run over to rip the camera off Morgan and shut it down. The moron whined that he'd almost had a sale before Chuck stopped him and when the only response he could come up with when Chuck pointed out that the only thing that he was close to was sexual harassment charges was to sneer "You used to be cool" at him, Chuck lost it, pointing out that he was supposed to be an adult and if he didn't grow up he'd be stuck working a dead end retail job for the rest of his life and would drag Chuck down with him, which just made Morgan stalk off in a sulk.

When Casey got the update from the General about Laszlo, he didn't want to admit it but he was afraid to do comparisons between Chuck and this guy, Laszlo was at least as smart as Chuck, graduating College at fourteen and getting his doctorate at seventeen, and seeing the carnage he supposedly wreaked when he escaped, Casey thought that they were just lucky that Chuck hadn't turned out that way after all the shit he'd been put through at a similar age.

As Chuck was leaving work he was jumped by a guy in a Halloween mask waving a water pistol at him, given that he could see that it was a water pistol he played along when Laszlo pulled off the mask and started raving at him about the fact that he knew that they were discussing him as he'd tapped into the encrypted link that was being used and saying that he was being framed because the FBI notices were faked. As it was only a water pistol, Chuck decided to pretend to try and get the gun off Laszlo and then "discover" that it was a water pistol so that he could try and talk him down. That worked and they ended up at a coffee shop, talking. Getting Laszlo's story made Chuck really feel sorry for him, it was easy to see how a life like he'd had would push anyone around the bend (found by the CIA at eleven and they'd conned his parents with an offer to pay his way through school, so they signed him over and he became their property then), he wasn't a bad guy, but he was more than a little crazy at the moment.

Meanwhile Ellie and Devon came home to find Morgan sulking around the fountain, and had to put up with him whining about Chuck being off somewhere doing "something really mature" Ellie was on the verge of telling the loser to get lost when Devon insisted that they help him out, and he was too stupid and/or self centred to read the incredulous look she gave him when he said that. When they were inside (because Devon always had to get his way), Ellie had to put with Morgan standing there and asking her if she thought he was immature. Anyone capable of thought would have easily read the expression on her face at that question, but as he didn't she asked "Do you REALLY want me to answer that?" and he was stupid enough to say "Yes" so she was just about to answer him when Devon asked him to step into the kitchen and condescendingly told Ellie "I'll handle this one Honey." If looks could kill the world would have been rid of both of them at that point, but as long as they were away from her she didn't have to think about them, so she just went out.

Chuck knew that he should bring Laszlo in, but they couldn't let the CIA or anyone like that get their hands on him again, and he thought that if he could calm him down enough he could get him to accept help. Once he got him to that point he'd contact Auntie D and they could bring him in to somewhere safe, so he took him into the Buy More so that he'd have somewhere to spend the night (the home theatre room). Given that Casey hadn't bothered filling Chuck in on what they were claiming that Laszlo had done, he thought everything was fine and decided to play along with Laszlo and ignored Sarah's calls while they were sitting together. He did get a scare when Laszlo brought up the hidden military subsystems on the CIA communications system, but managed to talk him out of bombing San Francisco and into watching another movie, ducking out after telling he was just going to get more popcorn he checked his messages and what he heard made him decide that it would be safer to go to the Nerd Herder like Sarah told him to. When he got in the car, though, Laszlo was already there, and he went off the deep end when Sarah, Casey and Laszlo's handler turned up. At that point Laszlo showed once again that he wasn't delusional about all the things he said he'd designed because he activated a separate control system for the car and took off, ejecting Chuck from the car when he tried to stop him. Casey and Sarah stopped their pursuit of Laszlo to make sure that Chuck was OK, much to the disgust of Laszlo's handler (as they'd been out of sight when Laszlo ejected him Chuck got away with saying that the car was only doing a third of the speed it actually was when he was ejected, because being thrown out of a car at twenty miles an hour is something a normal person can handle OK, being thrown out at over sixty miles an hour, like he was, would have required serious explanation about how he managed to come out of it without any real damage the way he did, given that he couldn't mention his training).

The next day, Chuck was sent to work at the Buy More while Sarah and Casey went hunting for Laszlo, but after they'd traced the GPS to the other side of LA, only to find that it had been put on a truck, Chuck looked at the doodle that Laszlo had given him as an IOU when he'd paid at the Coffee shop the night before at and flashed on it. Chuck's flash gave him Laszlo's location, the pier that the arcade where he found him, and where the CIA had found him when he was eleven. He called it through to Sarah and Casey but as it would take them too long to get back from the other side of LA, he headed straight down to the pier himself. He found Laszlo and the Nerd Herder under the pier, and he tried to talk him down, but when Sarah and Casey turned up, Laszlo tricked him into arming the self destruct charges in the car (he'd set everything up so that all it needed to arm it was an authorised thumbprint, and Chuck provided that when he caught the keys that Laszlo threw to him). Unluckily for Laszlo but luckily for everyone else, Chuck managed to disarm the bomb before it went off and Casey promptly captured and secured Laszlo.

When Casey and Sarah headed off with Laszlo, Chuck jumped on the phone to Auntie D. The first priority was to get Laszlo redirected to a secure DIA location, because they couldn't afford to let the CIA or anyone like them get their hands on him again, so once he'd convinced her of that, he waited while she made the arrangements and called the change of orders through to Casey. Then came the hard part of the job, the CIA wanted Laszlo back to make their toys, Auntie D and other "responsible" bodies wanted to bury him so deep that no-one would ever find him, to prevent him being used the way he had been again, but the argument that Chuck had to sell was to get Auntie D to do the RIGHT thing, get Laszlo the support and therapy to fix what had been done to him since he was eleven, give him a decent life, and when he'd recovered enough, give him a chance to be working in a good environment without being used. Chuck's suggestion on the job angle was to get him working with his Dad, a pair of eccentric geniuses like Laszlo and his Dad should get along fine, and could produce incredible things. Chuck was talking to Auntie D for over half an hour, trying to convince her that it would be as good for the DIA as it would be for Laszlo to follow the path that he was advocating, and eventually she said that she'd try to make it work, Chuck told her that he'd pull whatever records and information he could find together for her to show what had actually happened to Laszlo and what he'd created, in hope that that would help make the case.

Chuck did as he'd promised and Auntie D managed to get enough support to get Laszlo evaluation and therapy in a secure DIA facility, as that was the first step along the path that Chuck was trying to create to get Laszlo back from where he was. What she didn't tell Chuck, and he didn't find out until about a year later when he saw Laszlo again, was that she'd used the recording of Chuck's argument to her to get Laszlo to commit to working with them on that path. Laszlo didn't trust anything or anyone after what had been done to him most of his life, but what she played for him was an impassioned plea for her to do the right thing and give him his life back, and when he asked her why Chuck called her Auntie D she told him the truth, that Chuck was her godson. She also answered his questions about what Chuck was saying about his father honestly, explaining that Chuck's father had been in similar position to him at one point, locked away and forced to make whatever the CIA wanted, and he'd gone more than a little crazy for a number of reasons, but now he was pretty much straightened out and was running a lab for the DIA where he wasn't being forced to produce anything he didn't agree with any more.

When Chuck got home for Ellie and "Awesome"s (the fact that the guy actually believed that the nickname suited him said SO much) Halloween party, he had to go and placate Morgan, who was sitting in a corner with the Sandworm costume, in an effort to try and get him out of his sulk Chuck told him that he could be the head this time and they were putting on a show when Ellie came up to ask how the interview for the Assistant manager's job went. Chuck started into the explanation that he blew it and missed the interview when they were interrupted by Sarah, in a Princess Leia slavegirl costume (which had Morgan openly salivating over her in front of everyone), with a story that he'd blown off the interview to help her with a personal emergency that she had, and that he was kind of a hero that way (this left him and Ellie wondering why she was changing their cover story on the fly just to try and make him look better), Chuck told Morgan that he needed a five minute break and Morgan played the big man (yeah, right!) telling him to take ten, and Chuck went inside to talk with Sarah. Sarah made him pose for another photo with her, so that they could replace that photoshopped picture that she'd brought over, because she wanted him to have something real. Just as they were close to really sharing something, though, Morgan came barging in less than a minute after they'd come in (take ten, right), rabbiting on that people were calling for the Sandworm (Ellie later confirmed that he'd been running around begging people to call for the Sandworm from the moment Chuck and Sarah went inside), so Sarah said that she'd see him outside, but as soon as she'd left Morgan just sat down and wanted to know what they'd been talking about. Chuck just deflected it back to the sandwich discussion that he knew drove Casey up the wall (he loved to wind up Casey just as much as Casey loved to try and wind up him), which of course gave Morgan an opening which he grabbed to insist (seriously) that he had to dump Sarah because of her supposed sandwich choices. He was really getting tired of this little tool.

 **A/N: In case I messed up the story telling, Mei-Ling Cho and Laszlo Mahnovski have both been added to team Bartowski in this story now ;)**


	5. Bryce

**From here on we're starting to depart from the screened episodes, so luckily it won't have to fit into the original story, some characters will leave.**

 **Usual disclaimer, no rights to any characters portrayed, yada, yada.**

After the Halloween party finished and everyone went home, Chuck sealed up his room and called Aunty D. She was half asleep when she answered but woke up pretty quick when she saw how angry Chuck was. He'd been holding it in all night, but he'd been stewing about all the shit that came from Morgan, the Buy More and everything else since the little troll interrupted what he was sure was about to be a major moment with Sarah. He'd leave Ellie to say what she felt about their cover life, but he was done putting up with his, and he launched into his demands for changes to his cover. He knew that Auntie D would get Ellie's input on what she wanted when she was coming up with responses to Chuck's demands.

First, Morgan Grimes had to be gone, if they didn't approve and support the removal of the little bastard from Chuck's life immediately, he'd end him, on top of the fact that his unending stupidity had killed Chuck's patience a long time ago and his constant childish, idiotic antics were destroying his life, his inappropriate and unappreciated comments and actions towards and about Sarah were making Chuck want to end him on a daily basis, if not more. Diane had never seen Chuck so incensed before and she promised that she supported the separation of Grimes from their lives (she didn't bother mentioning that she'd been thinking about this for a while now as she didn't see that helping), telling him that she'd come back to him for some scenarios within twenty four hours.

Second, they needed to come up with new cover jobs for him, Jeff and Anna ASAP, and they better not be the same sort of stupid fucking shit that the Buy More was, they needed to be in something like computer systems and security and he'd prefer it to be some sort of small startup with just them, or maybe them, Casey and Sarah so that the other two could do their jobs without dealing with the shit that they had to, too. If they stuck them into another structure where they were subject to the whims of self important idiots again, there would be accidents because he'd be going postal. She said that this would take more time, but she'd try to get some suggestions for them as soon as she could.

Third, he wanted the names of the idiots in the Cover Bureau who'd created this stupid fucking cover life that he'd been trapped in for the last five years, so he could go and explain to them how much he'd enjoyed living with all the fun and excitement that they'd created for him. Diane swallowed, saying "We can't do that Chuck, I'm sure that it wasn't personal, they were just creating a cover life which was consistent with your circumstances at the time." He looked at her balefully as he bit out a response "Perhaps, but they've locked me and Ellie into this hell ever since, every request that we've made to have any details changed has been refused, as you well know, so if it wasn't YOU who kept us stuck in this crap, Auntie D, it must be the Cover Bureau, mustn't it?" "No, it wasn't me Chuck, I'll look into it but we can't give you those names." (She quickly made a note to get any names redacted from the files ASAP before Chuck got frustrated and dug them out himself, having him go postal through the Cover Bureau would cause problems.)

His last request was that he wanted to be able to tell Sarah the truth, he realised that this was more difficult, because of the CIA angle, but it was hard to lie to her. This was the first request which wasn't put forward as an angry demand, he was pleading with her for this and it broke her heart. She looked at him and quietly asked "You really care about her, don't you?" "More than I thought possible, I thought I was finished with feeling this way about anyone after Jill, but she means more to me than Jill did." "I won't lie to you Chuck, at the moment I don't know how we can make it safe to tell Sarah the truth, I think I can trust her, and so does Ellie, but I'm more certain that we CAN'T trust Langston Graham, so letting his protégé in on your secrets, and Ellie's, would be incredibly dangerous. I'll look into what we can do, and I'll talk to your Uncle Bry, he's mentioned that he's had dealings with Sarah before, so he may be able to come up with a way to test whether it would be safe to bring her into the fold, but for now, I'm sorry, but I just don't think that it's safe to do that." Chuck hung his head, her answer wasn't anything he hadn't expected, and in fact he thought she'd be more adamant in her refusal, but it was disappointing. At least she'd promised to look for a way. That was the last matter that he'd wanted to discuss with her, so he finished with "Thanks Auntie D, sorry about getting angry but this has been getting to me, goodnight." Her response was something that he hadn't heard from her since he was a kid "Goodnight sweetie, sleep well."

The next day at work, the only thing that kept him from wringing Morgan's neck when he started coming out with his usual stupid shit was Auntie D's promise, so he kept telling himself that he would have a solution soon, and the fact that Casey called him away helped. In the home theatre room, the NSA had upgraded the video conferencing gear and the better screen showed how haggard Auntie D was looking after their late night conversation. He found out that Auntie D wasn't in the mood for laughs when she launched into the reason for the briefing, the CIA had lost a significant asset, the Stanford professor who'd helped Bryce Larkin throw Chuck out of Stanford. Sarah couldn't understand why Chuck was reacting so badly to this, at least not until it was explained about Fleming's role in throwing him out later, and even then she didn't get the depth of his reaction. Graham was pushing the need to re-acquire Fleming, and Auntie D cut in to say that they wanted Chuck to help on this (one of the few times she used his name in these sessions as she had to get through to him), her expression told him that she understood what this was doing to him, but they had no choice but to ask him, she didn't argue when he refused.

Getting home from the day at work, it just got better as the courtyard was filled with Devon's dumb jock frat buddies. Considering that Devon had played football at college, it was very suspicious that throwing the ball "to" Chuck from less than ten yards away had it going straight into Chuck's family jewels, then he insisted that Chuck HAD to come up to the game at Stanford that weekend because it was Chuck's alma mater. When Chuck refused it quickly became obvious that the whole thing was just an excuse for Devon and his frat buddies to try and humiliate Chuck. Ellie tried to talk to Chuck about it, not knowing that he'd already been having discussions about Stanford that day and was on edge about it, so he shut her down, he knew that she had the best intentions for him (as always), but he just couldn't handle any more talk about that place. All this served as the catalyst which made Chuck dig out the box of his Stanford mementos to get rid of them. Stopping to have one last look inside he box before he threw them out, he had a flashback to the day he left that made him pick up the box and go straight out to throw it in the bin. When he bent down to pick up his student ID that had fallen out as he threw the box in, though, he got a hell of a shock because he flashed on himself!

Neither Sarah nor Casey could think of any reason for Chuck's records from Stanford to be in the Intersect, because the official records they'd seen on him only started when he was sent the Intersect. The only link that they could find between Chuck, Stanford and the CIA was Professor Fleming, so Chuck changed his mind about helping them find him. The next day Casey came up with a hit on Fleming off a traffic cam in LA and insisted that Chuck had to come along, even though Chuck had another flashback about when Fleming told him that he was being expelled for cheating and selling test answers, he went along to get him. He stayed with the car while Sarah and Casey went in to get Fleming, but saw Fleming walking past and intercepted him, they talked about the CIA code phrases and Chuck asked him about Stanford, but Fleming got shot with a crossbow bolt before he could tell Chuck anything useful, he went to give Chuck a piece of paper with some numbers on it to give to Bryce, but the guy who'd shot him took that piece of paper. It took another day, a Stanford library book that Ellie found in her stuff and another flashback of playing games of gotcha in the library with Bryce for Chuck to work out what the numbers meant, but he did, and he realised that had to go back to Stanford after all.

It was uncomfortable being back there, and when Chuck retraced his steps back to the spot in the library that he remembered, they thought that they were too late, as there were books strewn all over the place, but while he was standing there Chuck had another flashback which led to them finding the container hidden up under the shelf, which still had the disk in it. Unfortunately the one who'd shot Fleming turned up with his men and they had to run. Eventually they managed to take out the bad guys with the help of the CIA recruits who were listed on the disk, and got back to LA. When Chuck checked the record on him, it was a video of an interview that was supposed to be with him, but it was Bryce who walked in. Bryce was saying all the right things, but something just didn't ring true, he was putting on a great act in there of being a caring friend who was desperately trying to save Chuck from the CIA, but the guy that Chuck knew most of the way through university was rather arrogant, relied on his money, looks and charm to cruise through and never really cared about much past the next girl he could talk into bed, if Chuck hadn't covered for him and coached him through cramming sessions before just about every exam, he would have flunked out long before the time that Chuck was expelled, what it came down to was that the Bryce on that video wasn't the guy he'd been a roomie with. While Sarah was touched by the video, when Chuck mentioned his doubts, she had to agree that in the two years that she'd been Bryce's partner, she'd never seen anything like the guy who was on the video, any time that the agent slipped and she saw what was underneath, it was the man that Chuck described. Whatever Bryce's motivation though, she wasn't about to take a chance of endangering Chuck any more than he was, so she remastered the disk without any mention of Chuck and submitted that copy, the original went into a fire and she watched to burnt to a crisp, then broke up the pieces and disposed of them around town.

Things were quiet between Chuck and Sarah for the next couple of weeks, they weren't bad but they weren't moving forward, possibly because of the memories of Bryce that been stirred up for both of them. Auntie D had come up with some plans around Morgan and the Buy More, and while she'd been hesitant to suggest it, she agreed with the proposal that it would be better to accelerate the move of all of them into a new cover company (a small security and technology startup, as Chuck had suggested), rather than disappear Morgan as that would attract too much attention. Therefore she agreed with Chuck pushing Morgan away, but asked that he limit the amount of damage that he did to him. Actually, Devon was creating more issues than Morgan was at that moment, with his constant sexual comments and advice, as well as making Chuck, Sarah and Ellie very uncomfortable with what he was saying, listening to him going on about the fact that Chuck needed to get back on the bike made Sarah think that they needed to do more work on their cover, and that they needed to put on a good enough act to convince Ellie and Devon that they were sleeping together and were therefore in a full relationship, so she arranged with Chuck for them to spend the night together to shore up their cover.

A complication developed when Ellie was injected with a pentothal derivative by someone who was trying to locate the information that the man who'd collapsed in front of Ellie in the street was carrying. Thanks to the drug, they all found out what Ellie really thought of Devon. As soon as she'd collapsed they'd rushed her to an agency doctor (they convinced Devon he was a poisons specialist) who administered the antidote and she was fine, but antidote left her amazingly clear headed (the antidote was intended for agents to help them recall what intel they'd given up while they were drugged), so when she woke up the next day she remembered everything that she'd said when she was under the influence of the drug, and thinking about it she found that she totally agreed with what had come out (though she was more than a little embarrassed about what she'd said to Chuck and Sarah in his room). As a result of those revelations, when Devon got home that night he found everything of his packed and ready to go beside the front door, he argued and tried to intimidate her into backing down, but he quickly realised his mistake when he was faced with a Chuck that he'd never met before, the bumbling self effacing nerd that Devon liked to lord it over was totally gone, the man now in front of him was a wolf who clearly WOULD rip his throat out if he said one more word to his sister.

Devon pissed himself a little and apologised profusely as he quickly moved to shift his bags and boxes outside. As he was taking the penultimate box out, Chuck pushed the last suitcase out into line with the doorway with his foot, and as Devon turned back to the door Chuck flicked it up into his gut with his foot so that it caught Devon with enough force to throw him back a couple of yards to land on his arse. Devon was rolling on the ground holding his stomach when Chuck walked up to him and held out his hand, Devon went to grab his hand to pull himself up but Chuck just slapped his hand away and said "Keys", when he didn't react, Chuck bent down to rip them off the clip on his belt, removing all the keys related to the apartment before throwing the remainder back to hit him in the chest, then leaning down he quietly informed him that he would NEVER come back here, never try to contact Ellie, and that if he was stupid enough to even think about trying to have anyone get back at Ellie for any of this, he would regret it! With that, he turned and walked inside, shutting the door. As Devon struggled to his feet, he saw John Casey leaning on the door frame of his front door with the biggest smile he'd ever seen on his face, looking like he was about to burst out laughing. When Devon tried to draw himself up and put the man in his place the smile instantly disappeared off Casey's face and he stood tall and hard, which made Devon just about piss himself for the second time inside ten minutes, so he hastily grabbed up a box and proceeded to carry the bags and boxes out to his car as quickly as possible. Casey relaxed onto the door frame again with an amused expression on his face as he watched until everything was in the car and Devon had left.

Sarah was sent on an out of town assignment for a few days after that, and as fate would have it, Chuck had another customer come in panicking because her phone had died and, as she said, "My whole life is in this phone, what would I do if I lose it?" Of course, Chuck managed to recover everything for her and transfer it into a new phone, and Lou thanked him with a sandwich that she'd named in his honour (she had a deli in the mall). The sandwich was exquisite, so the next day he went over to her deli at lunchtime to get another one, but while he was waiting he flashed on a flyer for a new nightclub that was opening, as casually as he could he asked Lou about the nightclub and she explained that it was her ex's and he was trying to get her to come to the invitation only opening night, she was trying to get the point through to him that they were done, but he wouldn't take the hint. With that Chuck thanked her for the sandwich and went back to the Buy More, because he had to report the flash. The flash was about arms smuggling, which her ex and his father were very much into. Unfortunately, the family were quite high profile on the most international threat lists and there was a lot of chatter about a shipment currently under way which was thought to include a serious bomb of some sort, so Graham insisted that Chuck had to get in there and plant some bugs to pick up what they were discussing, and the only way to do that would be to date Lou. Chuck was really uncomfortable about the idea (for having to use Lou that way, and because he was worried what Sarah may think), but Auntie D couldn't see any way around it, so she instructed Chuck to continue talking to Lou to set the scene.

As soon as they finished the video conference she called Sarah, when Sarah confirmed that she was clear to talk, she explained to her the flash that Chuck had had, and what his instructions were. Sarah went quiet at that and she gently asked her if she was OK with this? When Sarah evaded the question Diane asked her if she would come to her office for a private meeting without telling Director Graham (Sarah's assignment was actually in D.C.) Sarah was worried about that request, but she didn't think that the General was good enough to fake the emotion in her voice when she pleaded with her to do this, and agreed. When Sarah arrived the General told her assistants that she wasn't to be disturbed for any reason, went into her office and activated the same type of security controls as Chuck had in his room (some of his father's best work). When they were secure, she played Sarah a compilation of the clearest examples of the emotions that she and Chuck displayed for each other.

At the end of this, Sarah was looking seriously worried, because this was proof that she'd broken all the rules, but the General assured her that that no-one else would find out about this from her, she mainly wanted her to understand that she was not only aware of it, but quite OK with it, and that she would keep their secret. With that, she repeated the question she asked her over the phone, whether she was OK with Chuck doing this mission? If she wasn't, Chuck was quite capable of screwing it up so it didn't go anywhere, but if she was OK with him going only as far as he needed to plant the bugs in the club, then she'd need to help him with it, and she'd need to let him know that she supported him in doing this. Sarah looked at the older woman, still a little suspicious but allowing herself to have some hope that they may have some support here. At that, she gave an honest answer, she wasn't happy about it but she understood the needs of the mission and she would support Chuck in what he had to do in this instance. That seemed to make the General happy for some reason, and after a bit of hesitation she went on to tell Sarah that there were things in play that she couldn't share with her just yet, but could be quite promising for them all, she asked that Sarah keep that secret for her, just as she was keeping Sarah's (waving at the screen), she also added that Sarah didn't have to worry about Casey, he was under orders to ONLY report anything he saw to her, personally, and he followed his orders. With that the General contacted her assistant to get the jet prepped to fly Sarah back to L.A. so that she could get Chuck ready for his mission.

Back in L.A. they arranged for an off-site install for Chuck so he could sit down with Sarah and learn what he needed to do for this mission. Sarah talked him through the steps to take, but when he still looked nervous she made him look at her, and explained to him that this was part of the job, neither of them were happy about it, but it was OK, all he had to do was play along enough to get into the club and place the bugs, that was all. Chuck relaxed at that, and after a few more instructions headed to Lou's wearing an earwig and a mic. In the end Chuck didn't need much prompting to convince Lou that the best way to get the point across to her ex that they were over was to turn up at the opening for his club with another guy, and Lou jumped at the chance. As he was heading back to the Buy More, he apologised to Sarah for what she'd heard when Lou agreed to go to the club that night, but she laughed and said that he hadn't done anything wrong and that he'd done a great job getting her to agree to get him into the club. With that he went back into the Buy More with a smile on his face to finish the last hour before he went home to get ready for his "date". At the club that night, Stavros (Lou's ex) brought them both up to the owner's lounge in an attempt to show up and embarrass Chuck, which was perfect for Chuck as it meant that he didn't have to work hard at all to get access to the best location to plant the bugs, his problem was getting away, Stavros wanted to keep them there playing the big man to try and impress Lou. When another half hour had passed without any useful information from the bugs because Chuck and Lou were there, Sarah went in to get Chuck out. The dress that Sarah was wearing was the smallest that Chuck had ever seen, it barely covered enough to forestall public indecency laws. The second she entered the club, the eyes of every man (and half the women) were fixed on her, because she looked absolutely incredible. She locked her eyes on Chuck and the others in the owner's lounge and stalked straight across the dance floor, the dancers parting to give her room as she advanced. When she was standing in front of them she began berating Chuck, her voice somehow cutting through the music "What happened to what you told me about loving me forever, was that just another lie? I've only been gone for three days and you've already moved on to some other tart?" Chuck leaned over the rail as he shouted back at her "I was supposed to wait around for you when you told me that you'd had enough and you were going to find someone who could treat you the way you expected to be treated? How does that work in your head?" "I'll admit I was angry when I left, but you told me FOREVER, forever obviously seems to have a different meaning for you!" "You gave up and left, why should I turn down someone else when you'd already gone?" At that point, Lou's drink was thrown in Chuck's face, glass and all, and she jumped up, calling him a bastard and telling him to go back to that bitch because she never wanted to see him again, then she stormed out. Chuck jumped up and went to follow her, but was met by Sarah when he reached the dance floor, he wasn't sure that her words "You're not going anywhere without me!" or the searing kiss she laid on him seemed to be entirely scripted, but he wasn't arguing when she grabbed his hand and led him across the dance floor and out of the club. As they came out the front door she waved to the valet and her Porsche was brought up. After she'd slid lithely into the driver's seat, she looked at Chuck until he clambered rather less gracefully into the passenger seat and she pulled away. When they went around the block and came back to where the van was, she got Chuck to stand and cover her from view as she changed back into a more practical outfit behind the van, smiling to herself when he looked the other way without peeking while she changed. Chuck jumped when she kissed him on the cheek, and seeing that she was changed he asked what that was for, she smiled and said "For being a gentleman."

Casey filled them in on what they were getting out of the bugs now that Chuck was out of the way, Stavros had called his father and confirmed the delivery details for a package that sounded like what they may be looking for, and it was coming in the following day down at the docks. They took a team down to the docks at the allotted time, but the force that was waiting for them was rather larger than the one they'd brought. In the middle of the fire fight, Stavros broke away and ran, and Chuck took off after him, Sarah on his heels when she saw him chasing Stavros. They chased Stavros around a few warehouses before he ran into one, Chuck following him straight in, only to find that he'd stopped inside and drawn a pistol, he was bringing the pistol to bear on Chuck when Sarah came barrelling through the door, raising her's and putting a bullet between Stavros's eyes before he could pull the trigger. When they'd had a chance to catch their breath (if Sarah wasn't running on pure adrenalin she might have thought to question why Chuck wasn't in much worse shape than she was at that moment), they saw what Stavros obviously came here for, the large box that was the only thing in the warehouse. They tossed up going back for the specialists or seeing what was in the box, eventually going with seeing what was in the box, because if it was a bomb that big, they needed to clear the area because the blast would be serious. It took a few minutes with wrecking bars to pry one side loose, and that was their "oh shit" moment, because it was big, and it certainly looked like a bomb with a counter that was already under thirty seconds.

They didn't have enough time to definitely get clear of the blast, so they pulled off the timer to look behind and see if they could disarm the bomb, but the mechanism inside wasn't anything either of them recognised, and it didn't trigger anything in the Intersect. By that stage the countdown was under ten seconds, and Sarah told Chuck to run and try and find some cover while she tried to find some way to shut it down, but he refused to leave her alone, when it got to five seconds she gave up and threw herself into his arms to kiss him before it was too late. About thirty or forty seconds later, they started realising that the time that the bomb was supposed to go off was long past, so they abated the kiss and actually stopped about ten to fifteen seconds later, turning their heads to see the counter flashing 00:00. Sarah rested her forehead on Chuck's chest as she tried to regain her breath and her composure, then with one last look up at Chuck she pulled out her phone to call Casey to tell him to send the bomb squad to their location. Casey asked her if she knew where Chuck was, and she looked up at his face as she said "He's here with me.". Sarah stayed, leaning against Chuck's chest with his arms around her until they heard people getting heading for the door and she stepped away, drawing her pistol and holding it ready, but she holstered it when the first person in the door was Casey. The bomb squad couldn't do any more than Sarah and Chuck had with the equipment they had on-site, so they sent for additional equipment and Chuck, Sarah and Casey went home.

Sarah and Casey were called back to the site about three hours later when the bomb squad thought that they'd just about cracked it, when they arrived they were advised that it didn't appear to be a bomb, but rather a container of some sort. Just then the team managed to crack the code and the container opened, to show Bryce Larkin, and the team medic who checked him said his vital signs were strong. Sarah and Casey were looking from each other, to Bryce and back, trying to work out what the hell was going on, neither of them able to answer the other's questions about how this could be. Bryce was transferred to the nearest NSA facility in an ambulance, and two hours later he was conscious and talking, but all he would say was to ask for Chuck. Given that it would be far more natural for Sarah to be turning up in the middle of the night than Casey, Sarah went to get Chuck, calling from down on the street for him to come down. When he got in she took off, explaining that what they found wasn't a bomb, it was a container, and it had a man inside. Chuck looked at her "Was it anyone we know?" Sarah was quiet for a minute as she drove, and then she said "Yes, Bryce." "What, how, we were told he was dead, we went to his funeral!" "We don't know, he won't talk to any of us."

When they got to the NSA facility, Casey came down to get them and take them through to where Bryce was being held. As they went, Sarah asked him if Bryce had said anything else, but he just shook his head, saying that he kept asking for Chuck. When they got there, Sarah explained to Chuck that Bryce refused to talk to anyone but him, so if they were going to get anything out of him, it was up to him. He nodded and went to head in, but Casey reminded him to remove anything that could be used as a weapon before he went in, so he did that and then entered. When he walked in the room, Bryce sounded totally crazy, accusing him of being a fake, and eventually demanding that he say something in Klingon. When Chuck complied with that demand, Bryce laughed, telling him his Klingon was rusty. Every answer that Bryce gave was a question, or evasion, and when Chuck asked for details of how he could be alive, Bryce nodded him closer, but when Chuck leant in, he popped the restraint on the side away from the window and grabbed an injector gun from beside him, putting it to Chuck's neck and making Chuck undo the strap on the other side. Sarah and Casey ran in, but they couldn't shoot Bryce while he was holding the injector to Chuck's neck for fear of what he'd do to Chuck. Bryce backed them up and manoeuvred Chuck into the elevator, and threatened to kill Chuck if they didn't give him the access code, Casey laughed at him but when Bryce started pulling the trigger on the injector, Sarah told him. As the door closed, the last thing Chuck saw was Sarah's terrified eyes. On the way down, Bryce kept up the same game of answering every question with a question, and as they reached the bottom, he apologised and gave Chuck a shot in his arm. When Chuck came to Sarah was hanging over him in a total panic, and Bryce was long gone.

Things were quiet for the next couple of days, there was no news on the hunt for Bryce, and Chuck and Sarah didn't have a chance to duck surveillance to talk about what happened. Thanksgiving came, and unfortunately, they hadn't really managed to freeze Morgan out of their lives yet, so it was too difficult to cancel his invitation to Thanksgiving dinner without making a major scene. At least he was a lot quieter than he normally was, because when he asked where Devon was, he was frozen out by Ellie's reply of "Gone!". He wasn't getting much more from any of the others either, of Chuck, Jeff, Anna, Casey and Sarah, Sarah was the only one who was really giving him more than one word answers. When Chuck ran out to the car to get something that he'd left there, he was ambushed by Bryce coming out of the shadows. If he had been further out of the complex, Chuck could have taken him on, but where they were was covered by the cameras that the NSA and CIA were watching. Bryce was the same arrogant prick that he'd always been, taunting Chuck about what a loser he was, and telling him that he needed to speak to Sarah. When Chuck refused, Bryce said that he had to talk to her about the assignment that he was on, because she was the only one who could confirm that he was legitimate and get him access to Graham, anyone else would kill him. Chuck had to concede in his head that he'd certainly like to kill him, but decided to leave the decision to Sarah, if she was going to stay with him, it had to be her choice, it couldn't work any other way. On that basis, he let Bryce into his room via the Morgan door, and went in the front door.

He dropped what he'd collected in the kitchen and pulled Sarah aside, whispering in her ear that Bryce was waiting for her in his room and said he needed to talk to her to get her help to prove that he was legitimate. Sarah pulled her head back to look him in the eyes, reading the choice he'd made and leaning in to kiss him on the cheek, whispering "I'll TALK to him" before she gave him a squeeze and headed for his room. When she slipped into the room, she moved away from the door when it was pushed closed behind her. She turned to see Bryce smirking at her, as usual certain that he was in total control of the situation. She looked at him and asked "Why should I talk to you?" His smirk widened as he said "Because I'm not a rogue spy, because the Intersect was a mission, because, Sarah, you're still in love with me." With that he moved towards her, reaching out to pull her face to him, but got a rude shock when he was suddenly face down in the carpet with his arm reefed up behind him. Sarah reached around behind her with her free hand to get her phone, sending a quick text to Chuck "bring casey". About a minute later Chuck and Casey slipped into the room and closed the door, Casey smirking down at Bryce and holding a pair of handcuffs out to Sarah, who took them with a quick "Thanks".

Once Sarah had cuffed Bryce, they checked that the coast was clear and hustled Bryce over to Casey's apartment, dumping him into a chair and telling him to talk. He was still playing his games, saying that he couldn't talk to them, so Sarah turned to Casey saying "He's all your's", before reaching out to grab Chuck's hand and head for the door. Bryce's eyes were locked on their joined hands as he blurted out "Sand Wall", Chuck stopped as he flashed, and then looked at Sarah as he told her what Sand Wall was. Casey grunted in disappointment and pulled Bryce to his feet to remove the handcuffs. Once he'd freed Bryce, Casey went upstairs with him to initiate a link to Director Graham, then leaving him there for a debriefing and came back downstairs. In the living room, Chuck and Sarah were standing around, looking at anything but each other. Casey looked from one, to the other, then went over to the side table without a word to bring up the files that they were due to look into. Chuck and Sarah wandered over and stood on either side of him looking at the screen. About half an hour later, Bryce came downstairs, saying that he had his next assignment "I'm going after Fulcrum, on my own, off the radar", looking at Sarah as he said this with the expectation that there was no way that she could resist joining him in this. Casey moaned in pleasure and envy as this was the type of assignment that most agents dreamed of. Bryce followed that with "Bryce Larkin is gone, and he'll stay gone this time." He shook hands with Casey and Chuck, saying goodbye, then turned to Sarah and said "Sarah, we'll always have Omaha." and turned and walked out the door.

Sarah was looking conflicted after Bryce had left, and drew a breath before saying that she needed to go home and have some time to herself. She stroked Chuck's arm but didn't look at him before she left.

Chuck and Casey went back to looking at the files after Sarah left, but after a while Chuck turned to Casey and asked what Bryce meant by Omaha? Casey didn't speak for about a minute and then answered, "It will be a pre-determined code for them to contact each other, he's asking her to go with him and telling her how they'll contact each other to arrange it." Chuck just said "Oh" and looked down, then drawing a breath he said "I'll see you tomorrow Casey." and walked out the door.

Chuck looked at the front door of their apartment for about twenty seconds, then headed to his window and climbed into his room, shutting the window. He lay on the bed and spent some time looking through pictures of Sarah on his phone before laying back with the phone resting on his chest. After about an hour he couldn't hold off any more, and called Sarah's number, letting it ring until it went through to voicemail and hanging up.

About ten minutes later his phone lit up with a text, when he picked it up the message was from Sarah, all it said was "I'll see you in the morning", but that was enough to give him hope.


	6. Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead

**Usual disclaimer for the Land of Litigation, no rights to any characters portrayed.**

The morning after Bryce left on his dream assignment, Team Bartowski received text messages calling them into a briefing on short notice. Casey and Chuck were waiting for the link to D.C. to start and Casey looked a question at Chuck, and Chuck looked a little forlorn as he said "She said she'd be here.". At that moment the link came up so they couldn't talk any more. General Beckman asked "Where is Agent Walker?" and Casey was part way through a response "We're not sure ma'am.." when Sarah walked in and apologised for being late, citing traffic as the reason. Chuck's head had whipped around to look at her with a smile, so he missed Graham's reaction, but Casey and Sarah didn't. Graham was looking smug as Casey was giving his response, but when Sarah walked in, he was obviously shocked and none too happy to see her there, it appeared that he'd expected her to leave with Bryce and didn't like his plans being thwarted. Chuck was so glad that she was there he didn't pick up on the rather cool tone of the briefing from that point on, though he did look at Casey when he asked whether Chuck and Sarah would be going as a couple? The General looked at him and responded with "Unless they have a problem?", and Sarah jumped in to say "No problem", with Chuck agreeing, but Graham leant forward at that point to say "Agent Walker, ensure that you make it quite clear that you're there as a companion, not a partner, there are to be no impediments in case you need to get close to Kirk to get what we need." There was a brief delay as she looked at him and then she replied "Yes sir." As soon as the briefing finished Sarah turned and left without a word, but Casey grabbed Chuck's shoulder to stop him when he went to follow her. A few expressions crossed his face but what he ended up saying was "Give her some space." Casey knew exactly what type of mission Graham had just made this for Walker, but he wasn't about to explain that to Chuck.

Diane Beckman also understood what Graham had ordered Sarah to do, like Chuck, she had missed his surprise and anger when Sarah arrived because he was standing behind her, but there was no mistaking his orders to her. She was tempted to call the younger woman to talk to her about it, but thought that could make things worse for her, she remembered what her frame of mind was when she had to do this sort of mission back in the day, and someone calling to talk about it would have made her fall apart. She also thought of calling Chuck to explain to him what Sarah was being made to do, but if she told him he'd definitely blow the mission, and that wouldn't help anything. There was someone that she could call to get an explanation of what she was missing from though, and she picked up the phone. Casey explained how Larkin had been trying to get Sarah to go with him the night before, and that was obviously something that Graham was part of, because he told her about the surprise and anger on Graham's face when Sarah appeared for the briefing. Casey also brought up the fact that, for all the stories about her and Larkin, Carina Miller had told him in Prague before she took off and left him handcuffed to the bed about Walker's extreme distaste for seduction missions, and presuming that Graham knew that, this would be the obvious way to punish her for not doing what he expected her to. The General was quiet for a bit after he told her that then asked "Is there anything we can do to make this any easier for them Major?" The response of "We can only pick up the pieces when it's done ma'am." was expected, so she signed off with "I expect that you're right, thank you Major."

Chuck resisted the urge to call her when he went back to the Nerd Herd counter, but sent her a text "Are you OK?" "Yes, have to open up and get ready for the mission" "How are we going to organise getting there?" "Be at my place at 8" That was the last communication they had until he went to knock on her hotel room door just before 8:00.

Sarah wanted to explain to Chuck what Graham was ordering her to do, but didn't know how to. What he'd had to do with Lou was nothing compared to what she was probably going to be expected to do. She was afraid that she could lose the thing that had come to mean more to her than anything else over this, but if she went against the Director's orders or failed the mission, she'd be reassigned in a heartbeat and never see Chuck again, so she had to do this. Her only hope was that she could prevent things going too far, she was quite good at getting what she wanted from men without giving up much, and she'd be relying on those skills on this mission. One thing was obvious, though, this was her punishment for not going with Bryce like she was expected to.

When Sarah called for Chuck to come in, things were obviously "off" for some reason, he didn't know what was wrong but he didn't push it. When they got to the function and Chuck made a fool of himself by blowing $100K on one spin of the roulette wheel, he realised that he'd done something stupid but he still couldn't understand Sarah's reaction, or the way she went off to flirt with Kirk afterwards. They hardly talked all night and when she dropped him off at home, telling him that she was meeting Kirk on his yacht the next day, it looked like she wanted to tell him something but she couldn't, and it disturbed him. Because of that, even though he was supposed to be out of that part of the operation, he just couldn't stay away when she was on Kirk's yacht. Casey went off at him when he arrived, because he expected everything to fall apart if he saw anything happening with Sarah, but when he was showing Chuck the operation Chuck flashed on crates being loaded onto the yacht, and the fact that they contained printing plates for counterfeit currency. Casey kept asking if he was certain, because Kirk was powerful enough to bring them all down if this went wrong but Chuck was adamant about what he saw in the flash, so Casey organised the team to move in. Chuck had to head back to the Buy More when the team moved in, before they started asking questions about where he'd been. Sarah was below decks with Kirk, trying to keep him at arm's length while she worked to get information out of him when they heard a commotion up on the deck. Sarah followed Kirk upstairs and watched the confrontation where Kirk was arguing that the crates were already sealed and that it was illegal for them to be opened, but Casey went ahead and pulled the top off the crate, to reveal the wrapped up printing plates. That was plenty of cause for Kirk and all his men to be arrested on the spot. When Sarah and Casey got back to Casey's apartment they sent the call for a link for the debriefing, and when they came on the General was effusive in her praise for the outcome of the operation, but Graham was rather begrudging, obviously realising that his planned punishment for Sarah had been thwarted.

After the debriefing, Casey asked Sarah outright whether she'd compromised herself with Chuck (not knowing that she'd already come clean with the General on the matter), and even though he had his suspicions, her reply of "Do you ever just want to have a normal life, a family, children?" surprised him as he hadn't expected her to have gone that far down the rabbit hole, so all he could come back with at that moment was "We gave up our chance for that when we joined this life, we have to focus on the job we're here to do." she nodded, saying that she'd sort things out, if she couldn't she'd ask for a reassignment. She looked at Chuck's window as she left Casey's apartment, before turning and walking to her car, but as she got to her car her phone rang, she saw who it was and answered it as she climbed in.

She was rather surprised when the General's first words were to quietly ask her if she was OK? When she answered in a similar voice that she was glad that they'd managed to get Kirk the General said that she wasn't asking about that, and went on to explain that she'd wanted to call her after Graham ordered her to do what he did, and what her reasoning was to hold off, due to her own experiences. Sarah did something then that she hadn't done for a quite a while, and never while talking to a superior, she started to cry. The General let her get it out and then asked her what she'd had to do, she told her that she'd managed to keep it to light flirting, but she'd had to do some of it in front of Chuck and that had probably ruined everything, so as she'd told Casey she'd try to sort things out and ask for a reassignment if she couldn't. The General interrupted her at that point an asked her to explain what she'd just said, what had she said to Casey and why? She repeated the conversation she'd just had with Casey, only to be interrupted again by the General swearing and calling Casey an idiot. When she'd calmed down she addressed Sarah directly. "You, my girl, aren't going anywhere, we'll sort out things with Chuck and I'll sort out Major Casey, but our biggest problem is obviously Director Graham, we need to tread very carefully around him. I'll make sure that we always have a team mission up our sleeve in case he tries to give you other punishment assignments, he can't argue against the fact that the Intersect can't work with someone who isn't cleared, so a team mission will take precedence over anything else he may come up with, call me or text me straight away if he tries and I'll get the call out for the team." "Why are you doing this General?" "You remember what I told you about things in play that I can't share with you yet?" "Yes?" "Well you're an important part of those plans, unless you choose to leave and do something else, so it's in all our interests to protect you and keep you here. Can you trust me for now that I am being honest with you in this?" Sarah didn't know why, but she did trust that she was telling the truth in this. "Yes General" "OK, make sure that you're set up so you can call or get a message to me as quickly as possible if Director Graham tries anything, and trust me, we'll sort this out." "Thank you General" "Goodbye Sarah"

As soon as she got off the phone to Sarah the General called Casey and her first words when he answered were "ARE YOU RETARDED?" She spent the next twenty minutes alternating between shouting at him and demanding answers from him. By the time she hung up on him, Casey felt like he'd done ten rounds with Muhammad Ali, while simultaneously being put over his mother's knee, and it wasn't a comfortable sensation, he had seriously fucked up with both Walker and Bartowski and he didn't know how he could fix it.

That night, Ellie told Chuck to make a call to Auntie D as soon as he walked in the door, so he grabbed something to eat and went to his room to do so. She spent the next hour explaining to him what Sarah had been pushed into doing (and telling him that she'd managed to keep it far short of what would have normally been expected), as well as making him flash on all the relevant parts of the Infiltration and Inducement of Enemy Personnel training. She also told him about her own experiences with these missions and how they'd effected her. She made sure that he understood what Sarah had been doing, and that she really didn't have a choice unless she was ready to disappear, which she didn't appear to want. By the end of that session, Chuck was more than a little shell shocked and angry (at Graham, not Sarah), but Auntie D could see that he understood properly and that they could move forward, so she wound up the call and told him to go to bed. He wanted to talk to Sarah, but didn't want to crowd her, so he sent a text "Are you OK? Situation explained by DB. I'm Sorry" about five minutes later he got a response. "Yes, OK thanks, see you in the morning S". With that he felt OK to get some rest that night.

Over the next few weeks they were on tenterhooks, waiting to see what Graham might do. He tried to steer some missions in the direction to push Sarah to certain actions, but they worked together to get mission success without that happening. Chuck was bemused by how much effort Casey was putting into being a good and supportive partner to his team mates, but while Sarah seemed to have an idea why (from the looks she shared with Casey), they were never anywhere they could talk when it came up.

They did have a bad scare when Chuck discovered a bug in the Buy More, one that Casey HADN'T planted, and it got worse when the teams who came in to sweep the place properly after hours found that there were nearly thirty planted around the store. These bugs were a type that required a receiver nearby to record what they were picking up, and the team were given a 48 hour deadline to find that receiver and make sure that the recordings hadn't gotten into the hands of the people who'd planted the bugs before Chuck went into a bunker for his own protection. The problem was that they just couldn't find the receiver. Over half that time was gone before it registered that Big Mike was screaming about Norman (the tacky marlin he had mounted on the wall in his office) being stolen, and that gave them both the obvious location of the receiver, and the idiots who'd taken it (Morgan and Lester had bonded like the kindred souls they were when they finally got the point about them being frozen out by Chuck and Jeff respectively, and they'd started acting out in all sorts of stupid pranks), once they had the culprits identified, Casey went to strong arm them into telling where they put Norman while Sarah went to search their homes and anywhere else that they may have put it. She had the fish within an hour as it was just sitting in Morgan's bedroom in plain sight, so she called the news through to the General and Casey, then met Casey at his place so that they could go through all the recordings and remove any references that would give away anything about Chuck (and Casey scrubbed references to Jeff and Anna too). When the recordings had been properly sanitised they put the receiver back into the fish and the bugs back where they were, then Casey took Norman back to Big Mike, telling him that someone had called through an anonymous tip about where he was and Chuck had asked him to go get Norman. While Casey was making sure that Norman was safely mounted back on the wall, he hid enough bugs and cameras in there to ensure whoever came to retrieve the receiver would be revealed, not to mention hiding a tracker inside the receiver.

They captured the Fulcrum agent who'd planted the bugs and receiver when she came to retrieve it, and the incident provided the push needed for the General to get approval for them to change to new cover jobs (well, according to the NSA, Chuck, Casey and Sarah would be getting new cover jobs, and Chuck was poaching Jeff and Anna from the Buy More to make the business viable as a legitimate cover company. The General was holding off mentioning this to Graham or Sarah until it was a done deal). Under DIA direction, the NSA had acquired a suitable property in Glendale and they'd been fixing it up for the cover business (Piranha Security & Technology), as well as adding suitable facilities underneath to serve as an operations centre for them. Given that the low end cover jobs that they all had only required a week's notice to quit, the plan was that, as soon as they got the go ahead from the General, Chuck, Jeff and Anna would all put their notices in, and a day after they'd left Casey would suddenly have to go back East to nurse his terminally ill mother who was only expected had a month or two to live at most. Chuck, Jeff and Anna would have their phones disconnected as soon as they left, and would disappear for a couple of weeks. Casey would call Big Mike a couple of weeks after he left to say that he wouldn't be coming back because he had to stay to look after his family, and that would be the end of their old cover lives.

When the team tasked with recovering a device called the cipher, Auntie D had a video conference with Chuck, Casey and Ellie that night, where she explained what the cipher was and told Chuck and Ellie, and reminded Casey, about the termination order that would be issued on Chuck as soon as the new Intersect computer was operational. She made Casey repeat her orders to him in regard to this so that Chuck and Ellie knew that while there would be a termination order, it wouldn't be carried out by Casey. They also discussed the possibility that Sarah (or someone else) may be given a separate termination order by Graham. None of them believed that Sarah would carry out a termination order on Chuck, but other CIA agents definitely would, so Chuck was going to have to start living in his protective gear for the foreseeable future, just in case. The General asked Casey whether he'd gotten the delivery of the simulacrum bullets? He said that he had, and they were impressive. When Chuck and Ellie looked confused, the General waved at Casey to explain, so he told them that the bullets were designed to simulate the effects of an actual gunshot on the human body, so when the order came through, he'd enter the apartment and shoot Chuck (who would be wearing protection) with the simulacrum bullets, and it would look like an actual termination on the surveillance video (as long as Chuck played his part properly), down to the blood spatter being the proper blood type for Chuck. When he went to "confirm the kill", he'd tranq Chuck so that he didn't need to keep up the act while Casey was "removing the body" (the simulacrum bullets had tranqs built into them, but they probably wouldn't get through the protective gear that Chuck would be wearing), and then the General would send in an NSA cleaning crew to remove any evidence.

The General looked at her godchildren and pointed out the obvious, that Chuck would have to disappear and get a new identity somewhere else after that happened, and they'd go through the same process with Ellie afterwards to "tidy up loose ends". It was expected that people from the hospital would kick up a stink and her men on the cleaning crews would make sure to "miss" enough evidence for the police investigation to determine that they'd almost certainly been killed in the apartment and that the place had been cleaned up by professionals afterwards. She looked at Casey then and pointed out that Sarah would almost certainly be coming after him when she drew the obvious conclusions about what had happened, he nodded, and then grimaced when she added that Sarah wasn't to be harmed, telling him to make absolutely certain that when he shot back at her he was using the simulacrum bullets, the argument that they'd use would be that she went rogue when the asset that she'd compromised herself with was terminated, and Casey was defending himself when she tried to avenge Chuck's death, they'd give her the full story afterwards and she could get a new identity. Casey looked worried when he answered "Yes ma'am", because he was hardly a match for Walker at the best of times, Walker as an avenging angel? He wasn't sure that he'd get through this alive. Chuck asked what would happen if Sarah didn't want to join him in a new life, and the General laughed, saying "If she goes after Casey for killing you, as I'm sure she will, she's already throwing away her career to avenge the man she loves, she'll be so happy and relieved that you're actually alive that she won't worry about anything but being with you.". The others laughed at Chuck's dazed and happy reaction to that revelation, but then the General had to bring them back to reality, every part of this scenario would be dangerous, and they couldn't afford to let their guards down at any time until it was over, they nodded, sombre again, and on that note they wound up the video conference.

They managed to recover the cipher, though Chuck almost managed to get himself dropped out of a building by a very imposing man in the process ("Mr Colt" made Casey look like a runt), and the "termination" plans kicked into gear. When the General and Graham gave them the "revelation" of what they'd recovered and what that meant to Chuck, Chuck put on the expected show, and damped his reaction, keeping a smile plastered on his face when Graham smugly told him that he was free and to enjoy the rest of his life. After the others had left, the General called Casey back and they went through the motions of her ordering Chuck's termination and him arguing for he capitulated and agreed to obey his orders, they had to put on this show as it would be expected, and if Graham believed that Casey was terminating Chuck, he would be less likely to bother sending in anyone else, because the only one that Casey had ever missed was Goya. Because it would be expected, and because he wanted to, Chuck went to Sarah and convinced her to go on a "real" date with him before she left for her next assignment, and the speed with which she gave in and agreed showed him how much she wanted this, too.

Chuck and Sarah went on their date, and they were having a great time, Sarah was having fun making Chuck actually say what he was thinking outright and she was returning as much honesty as she could, then Chuck started flashing on everyone else in the restaurant and realised that they were surrounded by assassins and rogues, which made sense when Mr Colt walked in. When Mr Colt told Chuck that he was coming with him, Sarah signalled him to stall so she could get into a position to attack the man, but when she made her move she found that he was a force of nature, and far faster than anyone that size had any right to be. Chuck went to attack him to save Sarah, but stopped at the very convincing threat that she'd die if he didn't stay back. They were at a stalemate, Chuck standing there looking for an opening and Sarah dangling from Colt's massive hand, which would be able to snap her neck before Chuck could close the distance, when they were suddenly lit up by the headlights of the car that was charging towards the restaurant's plate glass windows. Colt dropped Sarah and dove one way while Chuck grabbed her and dove the other way, just as Casey's Crown Vic smashed through the window. Casey jumped out to cover them while the clambered into the car, but got blind sided by Mr Colt, luckily he fell back into the car and threw the Crown Vic into reverse to get them out of there. As they were getting away, he explained that when the courier turned up to pick up the cipher, he'd sprayed him in the face with some sort of toxin after he'd handed it over, and he'd only just made it to the detox mechanisms before it was too late. He figured that if they'd come after him they were likely to be coming after Chuck and Sarah too, so he headed over and was watching the restaurant when they were taken my Mr Colt, finishing with "It looks like you're still the Intersect Chuck." Sarah's response of "Don't worry Chuck, we'll get it back." showed that she still hadn't picked up on what their bosses plans were for Chuck were once the new Intersect went live.

The next day, Casey and Sarah were trying to trace down leads on where the cipher went (well, Casey was pretending to, he didn't want to go through with the fake termination as there was always a chance that something could go wrong and make it real), and Chuck had a service call for a company's computer problems, he managed to avoid saying "Oh, shit!" when the door opened to reveal "Mr Colt", but only just. He activated his locator beacon as he was dragged inside, and tried to stall until the cavalry turned up, because Colt had about a dozen heavily armed men there, way too much to try and take on himself, especially after he'd seen what Colt did to Sarah. Colt took up a bit of time boasting about how in control of the situation he was, and the crack he made about questioning whether Chuck was his real name gave Chuck the direction he needed. As he turned, he slipped into the Charles Carmichael persona he'd used with La Ciadad as he informed Colt that this was all a trap and started to describe the team that he had surrounding them, when Colt dismissed what he was saying he held up a hand to stop him and called Morgan (laughing to himself that the little tool would actually be useful for once, because Chuck had had to sit through his excited description of the plan for the Buy More crew to defeat Large Mart's team in Call of Duty in the lunch room the previous day, and that played right into his hands now) when Morgan answered, he asked him for the exact specs for the team surrounding the compound, and believing that this meant that he had his buddy back, Morgan launched into an excited rendition of the plan he'd told him the day before, saying that they'd gotten impatient and took out one of the sentries, and raving about how his head had exploded like a watermelon, that was enough to have Colt and his men at the window, looking for the troops outside and gave Chuck a chance to grab the cipher and run. The only way clear way out was up, because Colt had sent some of his men to cover the way in, so Chuck took off up the stairs as fast as he could.

Unfortunately, he was reminded just how fast a man Colt's size could be because he caught him in the top floor offices before he could get out onto the roof, and the kick he took to the chest threw him out through the windows and left him gasping for breath as he rolled about on the surface. That gave Colt time to grab him and haul him over to the edge to hang him by the ankles off the building as he demanded that Chuck hand over the cipher. That was the scene that Sarah saw when she got out onto the roof (she'd gone though Colt's men like a hot knife through butter to get to Chuck), she pulled her pistol and told Colt to bring Chuck back in, but he was so sick of these people ruining his plans at every turn he looked at Chuck, growled "It ain't worth it!" and dropped him, making Sarah scream. Casey was running up the fire stairs when he heard Sarah's scream and looked up to see Chuck falling, at that moment it flashed through his head that if Chuck died he'd have three women vying to kill him (Walker, the General and Ellie) and Walker would get to him first, so he all but threw himself off the fire stair to grab Chuck's wrist and swing him into the deck below him _._

Sarah had no idea that Casey had caught Chuck, so when Colt smugly told her "Your boyfriend's dead baby", she attacked him, and this time her desperate rage gave her the edge to be a better match for him. They'd pretty much fought each other to a standstill by time that Casey got there with his rifle to make him stand down, but unfortunately Colt managed to beat that with the rest of his team, who'd just arrived. Luckily the tactical team that Sarah and Casey had called had arrived by the time that Chuck got to the ground and he immediately led them upstairs, to make his entrance before anything could happen to Sarah and Casey and wipe the smug smile off Colt's face. He and Sarah only had eyes for each other, but to try and cover up what she was feeling she asked him if he had the cipher. Casey was leading Colt past as Chuck waved the cipher at her with a grin and ripped it off him as he passed (Casey and Chuck had a different view of what would happen when the fake termination went down, Casey was looking at what could go wrong if anything didn't go to plan during the operation, while Chuck was looking at it as a chance to start a new life with Ellie (and hopefully Sarah), away from all the crap that they'd had to put up with for the last six or seven years).

That night, after the cipher had gone back to D.C., Casey got the expected call from the General and Graham that it was time to terminate Chuck because they were bringing up the new Intersect, he put up a believable argument for the good that Chuck had done, but Graham was almost apoplectic in his demands that the termination proceed. Casey slipped in via the Morgan door (which Chuck had left unlocked) and headed up the hall to get a good angle on Chuck in the living room (as arranged). Just before he was about to take the shot, though, the doorbell rang. It was Sarah, and before he could ask her why she was early (she was supposed to turn up half an hour later to find him gone) she said "Chuck, we have to call off the date, the Intersect was destroyed. "What, but the cipher" "It was a Trojan Horse, a sabotage device, the moment it came on line it exploded" "But that means" "You're still the only Intersect, I'm Sorry" In Sarah's mind, they had just lost the chance they had to get around the rules that prevented their relationship, they may have had to wait before they could be together properly, but once their official connection was changed she could have been honest with him. The only definite win was the fact that they were told that Langston Graham had been blown up with the Intersect.

The next day, they had another briefing with the General, where she told them that they had new intel that Colt had been given the Trogan cipher and told to make it convincingly hard for them to get it, to lend more credibility to it. Colt had given up the identity of the woman who supposedly had the real cipher, Sasha Banacheck, and she was hard case, the only one who was able to beat her was Roan Montgomery (she watched carefully to make sure that Chuck didn't slip up and let on he knew "Uncle Roan", but while he managed to control his expression, she did note that both Sarah and Casey had obviously had dealings with Roan, too, from Sarah's expression and Casey's loud complaints) She explained that Agent Montgomery, who was semi-retired, had disappeared and that the team would have to track him down. Chuck made a show looking at the file but the flash started when Auntie D said that they needed to track him down, so he looked up and said that he was in Palm Springs. When they got to the address he'd flashed on, to keep up appearances he asked who this guy was, and Sarah was fondly recounting what a legend he was, while Casey muttered under his breath, that only made Sarah laugh as she asked him what the course that Roan failed him on was? Turning to Chuck she grinned and told him that it was normally called Seduction School at the Farm (her classes and time with Roan made up much of the very rare good memories she had from the Farm, because he wasn't like any of the other men there, a better name for his classes would have been Charm School). When they got to the front door though, it was open, so they went on alert. Inside, they saw him laying part under the bed, and thought he was dead, but when they checked on him he was only passed out, drunk. At that point a half naked stewardess came out of the bathroom and screamed when she found that she was facing with two pistols, so she immediately grabbed her clothes and ran out. As they had their orders they poured him into the car and hauled him back to the plane and then back to Burbank.

In the briefing with General when they got back to Burbank, she was telling them that their time window to get Sasha Banacheck was tight, and asked where Agent Montgomery was, Sarah and Casey were having trouble finding suitable words to describe his condition (as the relationship between Roan and the General was one of the worst kept secrets in the spy business). Casey was saying that they wouldn't be able to rely on him so their only chance was to torture it out of her when he walked in, looking fine, and said "Torture will never work." He explained that the only way of getting anything out of her was to charm it out of her, and laughed at Casey when he said he'd do it. When he described the sort of person they needed Sarah and Casey looked at each other, because he'd just described Chuck. When they brought him in, Sarah was trying to ease him into it and tell him what he needed to do, but he baulked because there was a big difference between working an innocent civilian like Lou, and working a hardened ex KGB operative like Sasha. "Uncle" Roan stepped in at that point to coach him in what he needed, but the last time that he'd had much to do with Chuck was from before he was a teenager, so he had to find out what Chuck the man was like quickly. He started goading Chuck to get a reaction and then said that he needed to see how he kissed a woman and insisted that he kiss Sarah so he could observe. They tried to avoid it, worried what might happen, but he kept pushing until Chuck did it, and it was much like the kiss when they'd thought that they had seconds to live, they both lost themselves in the kiss, struggling to drag themselves out of it to see Roan smirking at them. Sarah was so flustered that the best excuse she could come up with to get away was "I better fix my lipstick", Chuck didn't have any excuse, and he had to stand there as Roan was saying "Something tells me that wasn't the first time that's happened?"

When they were getting ready for the mission, Sarah was trying to calm Chuck down and told him to be himself. When he moped "I doubt Chuck Bartowski's going to be charming anyone.", her response of "Why not, it worked on me." made his heart swell. With the limited time to prepare, Roan decided to just talk him through the process, but as he wasn't used to doing that sort of thing the mics in the van where he and Sarah were didn't get turned off between instructions, so Chuck heard a lot that he wasn't intended to, and Roan and Sarah arguing about him in the van was throwing him off. Him questioning her about her feelings for Chuck and her trying to cover up with the "proper" canned answers caused more serious problems, especially when she tried to convince him that she had no feelings for him and was just playing Chuck while she was getting the equipment back on line after a drink spill, and Chuck heard that. Sarah had left the van to make sure that Chuck was extracted safely before Chuck angrily demanded that Roan tell him the final phase, and when Roan told him to be an arrogant bastard he went for it, his anger making him play it to the hilt. When Sarah came around the corner and saw him making out passionately with Sasha in the lift as the doors closed, her heart broke. When he was in the room with Sasha he flashed on the pendent she was wearing (because it was the cipher) and when she played her hand out on the balcony, he slipped the necklace off her neck and tied up the doors to the balcony to keep her inside. Unfortunately when he tried to climb up to the next balcony he was attacked by the people in that room and fell, but survived because he managed to land on a big padded lounge beside the pool. His elation at that was damped when Sasha told him over Sarah's radio that she had her and Casey and the only way to get them back was to trade the cipher for them.

Roan had taken off when he heard that and Chuck found him back at the apartments, drunk and despondent, they argued about saving Sarah and Casey but Roan kept coming back with the response that it was pointless. Even an almost paralytic Roan can be eloquent, though, and when Chuck asked him how he could let them die he just responded "because I'm not in love with one of the agents" Chuck tried to argue (much the same as Sarah had) and cited Sarah's responses in the van, but Roan just brushed those all away as the lies that they were, distilling it down to the real question "Is she worth dieing for?" At Chuck's "Yes" he came out with all the standard rules about spies and love, but it was Chuck's turn to lay the truth of the matter down "Then I guess I'm not much of a spy, and you're not much of a legend."

Roan came back the next day to help Chuck come up with a worthwhile plan, which started with sending her a phone to use to redirect her to a location that they controlled, the Buy More, that didn't work out quite as well as they planned as Sasha's men found Chuck too quickly and he had to run (to Sarah he was still just Chuck, not Carmichael). Sasha was about to kill Sarah and Casey when Roan turned up to help turn the tables, but Sasha managed to grab Sarah and put a gun to her head, using her as a human shield to get out to the limo and escape. Roan reminded Chuck of one of the stories he'd told him about swinging from the roof of a palace in Thailand. While he really didn't want to, Sasha was threatening to kill Sarah, so he did. He managed to knock Sasha out and they got control of the situation, so she was arrested and the cipher was recovered.

After the debriefing for the operation, Chuck and Sarah were back in a good space, and everything was pleasant as Roan was saying his goodbyes. He stopped Chuck going after Sarah when she left and gave him tips on how to pull off his signature move (ignoring the fact that "The Montgomery" only actually worked for him) before he left.

As Chuck was on a high at that point, he thought he'd take Roan's advice and headed to Sarah's in the white dinner jacket and requisite accessories that night. When Sarah opened the door, though, she seemed worried and hesitant and he found out why when the door was pulled open and Bryce was there, as arrogant as ever as he said "Hello Chuck, miss me?"

 **A/N: Firstly, yes, I've repeated some dialogues verbatim from the show, but some of those lines were just classics IMHO.**

 **On the undead douchebag, anyone who's read any of my stories would know that Sarah won't be having anything to do with him, for the purposes of the story he just turned up at her room unannounced a bit before Chuck did, he'll be dealt with in the next chapter.**


	7. Back Again

**Again, anyone who thinks that anything will happen with Bryce in my stories doesn't know me.**

 **Usual disclaimer, no rights to any characters portrayed, yada, yada.**

When Chuck left, Bryce have Sarah a smug grin and sauntered over to lay on the bed. Sarah looked at him for a minute then grabbed her phone and went into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door. She sat on the floor, crying silently for a few minutes and then picked up her phone and called the General.

The General knew that something was up for Sarah Walker to be calling her at this time of the night and answered the phone immediately, but she was totally unprepared for the question that Sarah asked. "General, why is Bryce in my hotel room?" "WHAT?" "He arrived about fifteen minutes ago, saying that he'd been called back by you for an urgent assignment, and that he can't be seen getting a hotel room because he's under deep cover, so he has to stay with me. He implied that all of that was under your orders, is that true?" "No it is not, I'm sorry Sarah, I didn't think that that slimy little bastard would try this. Firstly, yes, he's back in town for an assignment, he brought out intel that certain parties have gotten their hands on a package of very sensitive information and we need to get that package back before those parties can get it decrypted, because it's apparently about us. People above me were convinced that he's the only one who can get it, so I was told I have to use him on this assignment, and I'm afraid that you'll have to work with him on that. As far as his accommodations go, I suppose there may be some validity to the hotel argument, but I certainly wasn't involved in that in any way. Now while we probably can't just throw him out, much as I'd like to, there's nothing to say that you have to stay there with him, unless you want to?" "NO!" "OK then, why don't you pack a bag for the night and head over to Major Casey's and I'll let him know to get the spare room ready." "Thank you General." "Don't mention it, I'm sorry that you had to put up with this." "There's one other thing General, Chuck came over and saw Bryce here, I don't know what he's thinking at the moment." "Damn! Don't worry about that, you get over to Major Casey's and get a good night's sleep and I'll straighten Chuck out." "Thank you" The General took a deep breath and then called Casey "Major, please get the spare room ready for a guest, Agent Walker will be arriving in about fifteen to twenty minutes and she will be spending the night there." "Yes ma'am, may I ask why?" "She just got an unwelcome visitor back from the dead that we have to use on a mission tomorrow night, he turned up at her room and said that he couldn't get himself a room in case he gets made, she doesn't wish to stay there with him, so she will be staying in your spare room tonight." "Slimy little bastard" "Couldn't have said it better myself, there's more, our boy saw him there and now I have to call him and straighten him out" "Shit!" "That's about right, now if you can get the room ready for Agent Walker I've got some other calls to make." "Yes ma'am" with that they disconnected the call. Her next call was to Ellie, to explain what had happened and ensure that Chuck called her as soon as he got in.

When Sarah left the bathroom, she grabbed a bag and quickly packed what she needed for the night and the next day, including her laptop and weapons. Bryce asked her a wheedling, and then demanding tone what she was doing, and when she finished she turned and looked at him, saying that while he may not be able to go out to get a room, there wasn't anything stopping her from doing so, and she needed to get some sleep tonight so she'd find somewhere she could do that. With that she turned to walk out and he jumped up to grab her arm, but quickly let go when he saw the look in her eye, people tended to die when she got that look in her eye. As soon as he let go of her arm she headed out the door without a word. Bryce watched her go, thinking that this was going to be harder than he thought.

When Chuck got in, Ellie looked at him and said "Call Auntie D." He just looked at her and she pleaded with him, asking "Please Chuck, just call her, she can explain what happened", he stormed down the hall to his room and angrily mashed the keys to make the call. When she came on, he bit out "I was ordered to contact you General?" She sighed when she saw the expression on his face and tried to take a conciliatory tone. "Chuck, what you saw at Sarah's room wasn't what you appear to think it was." He just looked at her. "Just after you left, she called me in tears, he apparently arrived about ten minutes before you did because he's been called in for a mission tomorrow night, he claimed that he couldn't rent a room because he was deep cover, so he had to stay with her, he also implied that all of this was on my orders." He still didn't say a thing "The first part was true, the second part is possible but questionable and the third part is an outright lie." Then she went on to explain what she had said to Sarah, but giving more detail as they had a secure link here. "First up, Sarah is spending the night in Major Casey's spare room, she's upset so please don't pressure her, but if she comes to talk to you, don't you dare take this out on her because she had nothing to do with the way it happened, do you understand?" Chuck nodded, his tight expression relaxing

"He's been brought back to town for an assignment, he reportedly brought intel out of Fulcrum that they have gotten their hands on a package of very sensitive information and we need to get that package back before they can get it decrypted, because it's apparently about us, and more to the point it supposedly includes information about you. People above me were convinced that he's the only one who can get it, so I was told I have to use him on this assignment, and I'm afraid that Sarah will have to work with him on that because it will require them to get into other areas of the house to get the information, and that's the work for a team of experienced agents. Like the mission with Lon Kirk, Sarah will be forced to do things that neither of you are going to be happy about, but it's the only way for a mission like this to be successful, and after the mission I expect you to be supportive of her, OK?" Chuck nodded, not happy but more relaxed now that he had an idea of what was going on.

"Now, so you don't get blind sided in the briefing tomorrow, especially if he's in the room, Larkin and Sarah will be attending the event as a married couple and there will have to be a fair bit of PDA to make people think that they've slipped off to find somewhere quiet when they disappear to look for the chip that has the files, unfortunately you'll have to be there to flash on people and information so you'll have to watch that, as we need you to do your part for the mission to succeed. Can you do it?" Chuck drew a breath before he replied, but said "Yes, I'll do what I have to for the mission." "Good, now for the hard part, given what how he's played this so far, I'm suspicious of what Bryce Larkin is actually here for, as we only have his word on what's on that chip, I'll be making sure that WE get to see what's on it before it goes anywhere, and if it isn't what he claims, well I'll be seeing what I can do about him. I know that this will be hard, but try and act as if you don't know anything other than what you're seeing, that may make him cocky enough to let something slip. Personally, I think that he's mainly here to try to convince Sarah to go with him, if that's the case we should have enough evidence to ensure he never comes near our team again." Chuck looked at her (well looked at the camera perched on the screen) and asked if she was saying that she wanted him to act as if he was getting jealous of Bryce and Sarah so that they could get him to show his hand? "Basically, yes, as long as you and Sarah know that it's an act, it shouldn't be able to harm either of you, but it may trap him, can you do that?" "I can, but I'd rather talk to Sarah before we do this so I know she's OK with it." "I'll try to set that up, good night." When she finished the call with Chuck she called Casey back and asked if Agent Walker was there yet, when he said no, she asked him to get her to call when she arrived, she also asked him to get the file on their new cover lives out and give it to her to read.

When Sarah knocked on Casey's door about five minutes later, he let her in and showed her to her room, telling her that the General had asked for her to call and that he was downstairs if she needed anything. She thanked him and sat down to call the General. When she answered the call, she asked how she was holding up, and then explained what she'd told Chuck. When she got to the bit about asking Chuck to play jealous to try and make Bryce show his hand, she could tell that Sarah was unhappy about that, so she explained that Chuck had asked to be able to talk it over with her before he did that, she also requested that Sarah didn't reject Bryce outright, but just tell him that they needed to keep things on a professional basis for the same reason. Taking in the silence on the other end of the call, she asked whether Sarah was OK with that? After a bit of a delay, Sarah came back with "I'm not sure, I'll tell you in the morning after I've talked it over with Chuck." Diane decided to give her some space, and said that they'd talk before the briefing, but asked if Casey had left a file with her? Sarah looked around and said yes "Good, that's the file on the new cover lives that we're working on for the team, Major Casey is the only one who's seen it yet, but there's a couple of decisions that you need to make before the final details are worked out, these are your role, and also Chuck will need to be sharing with either you or his sister, the decisions are up to you, but it would be appreciated if you could let us know as soon as you can so that we can finalise the details. Good night Sarah." "Good night General, thank you." and they hung up.

Sarah picked up the file and ran through it quickly, this wasn't just a change of simple cover jobs, they were creating a security and technology company where they'd all be working in their fields of expertise, Chuck was bringing along two other people who she could tell were very good at what they did, and the new building wasn't just an office, located in a nice part of Glendale where the tech businesses merged into the residential areas, the office and secure parking took up the ground floor, with an operations base underneath, and several good sized apartments above to comfortably house everyone associated with the cover company, plus Ellie, from the pictures there was even a very nice roof garden, which the large penthouse apartment opened onto, this was a very plum setup, and that was matched by the plans for the business. She put the file down, then on second thoughts picked it up again and took it with her when she went downstairs. Casey looked over at her when she got downstairs and pointed to the key on the counter, saying that he'd see her in the morning.

When she went out, she planned to head for the front door, but she saw the light on in Chuck's room, and went to knock on his window. When he came over to let her in, his first words were "Are you OK?" Sarah smiled at him, saying "I'm better now, thanks." She decided that the needed to get the immediate things out of the way first, and brought up the issue of the way the General wanted them to play Bryce, after about twenty minutes they'd agreed that Chuck could pretend to be jealous as long as it didn't upset her, and Sarah could pretend that she wanted to be strictly professional for this mission, but she was ready to talk about more with Bryce, as long as it didn't bother Chuck. With that out of the way, she brought up the file and asked him if he'd seen this before. As he looked through the file, she couldn't work out why he was getting angry, and then he jumped up and quickly typed in the commands to initiate an AV link, when a sleepy looking Diane Beckman appeared on the screen he started in angrily, waving the file at the screen he asked "What's this? A bribe to try and make her stay?"

All traces of sleep disappeared instantly and General Diane Beckman was there in force as she answered "No, it was a professional courtesy to Agent Walker, she has to make some decisions about how she will fit into the new structure so she was given the information she needs to make an informed decision on those choices, I think if you asked Agent Walker you would find that she had already made her decision to stay." When he looked at Sarah, she was angry, too, now, that he'd question that she chose him, for him alone. The words that came from the screen next, though, made her slowly turn to stare at the woman on the screen "Why can't you ever see what the people who love you see? Just because that stupid bitch at Stanford picked Larkin over you doesn't mean that other, better women can't see who's the better man, respect her choice and stop questioning her." The tired looking woman on the screen turned to look "at" Sarah "You haven't been told everything Sarah, for one, this idiot beside you is actually my godson, and because of his personal history he questions anyone who shows that they care for him, but he is worth it, please don't give up on him. Also, you have my word that the file was not a bribe, as I told you on the phone, if you still want to stay around after this, you need to make those choices." Sarah looked at the screen for a minute, then said "Yes ma'am, and you can have your choices now, CEO, me and we'll play Bryce as you asked." Diane smiled on the screen, saying "Good choices, I will talk to you both in the briefing tomorrow".

With that she disconnected the link and Sarah turned to Chuck "If you ever suggest that I have to be bribed to stay with you again we will have a serious problem, do you understand?" "Yes, I'm sorry, it's just me." "Well stop it, now, I need to get some rest tonight but being upset makes that unlikely, can I stay with you, please?" "If it will help you sleep, of course!" With that Sarah kissed him on the cheek and sat down to pull off her boots, jacket and jeans and climb into bed, after a little wriggling her hand emerged to throw her bra onto the clothes on the chair while Chuck climbed into bed on the other side. Sarah snuggled into Chucks shoulder and within fifteen minutes was asleep.

When Sarah woke, her first instinct was to jump up out of bed, because she was in very unfamiliar territory, but she fought that down because she felt relaxed, comfortable and safe? These weren't feelings that she was used to, and nor was waking up with her head on a man's chest and his gentle arms around her, waking up in a man's bed before this had never involved tenderness, only the aftermath of sex. She raised her head enough to look at Chuck through the golden curtain of her hair as he slept, thinking about what had been said the night before, shit, godmother, that had blind sided her, though it did explain some of the things the little hard arsed General had done lately.

At that moment the door of Chuck's room opened quietly and she whipped her head around to meet the shocked eyes of Ellie. Sarah looked down to see that Chuck was still asleep then back up at Ellie, putting her finger to her lips, Ellie nodded and backed away while Sarah carefully extricated herself from Chuck's arms and slipped out of bed, picking up her bra and jeans from the chair before stepping out of the room and quietly closing the door. She ducked into the bathroom to put her bra and jeans on before joining Ellie in the kitchen. Ellie handed her a coffee without a word and stood looking at her, Sarah sipped her coffee as she struggled to work out what to say, "Ellie, that was.." "A long time coming?" Ellie asked with a grin, Sarah matched her grin as she said "Too long, but we didn't" "I know" At her look Ellie said "I know him, I should, I was the one who raised him, I just came in to see if he wanted breakfast because he was upset when he came back from seeing Bryce in your room last night." At that Sarah cut in "Ellie, that wasn't what Chuck thought" "I know, Auntie D called before he got home and told me what happened" "Auntie D?" "Sorry, you know her as General Beckman, now, he obviously doesn't want breakfast yet, what about you?" "Yes please, and actually, I found out about your godmother last night." Ellie whipped around to ask "What did he do?" "He called her to accuse her of trying to bribe me to stay" "And you stayed with him after that?" "They both explained that it was about his hangups, rather than a lack of faith in me, so I decided to give him another chance" Ellie pulled her into a hug and whispered "Thank you" in her ear.

When Chuck came out about half an hour later, they were sitting at the table, talking quietly, Ellie looked up at him and asked "Do you want breakfast?" When he answered "Yes please." she got up and headed into the kitchen. Chuck turned to Sarah and asked how she'd slept and she smiled shyly (a new one to add to the list) and said "Very well, thank you." At that point she looked at her watch and stood up, saying that she better get back to Casey's in case Bryce turned up early, otherwise they'd blow the plan to play him, Chuck nodded, not looking happy with the idea of what they were expected to do, she stretched up on tip toe to kiss him on the cheek, saying "Thanks for breakfast Ellie" as she headed to Chuck's room to get her boots and jacket, and the cover file. Ellie waved with a smile as she left, but the look she gave her brother was less friendly. When she brought his plate over and set it down in front of him, she belted him hard in the shoulder. "Ow, what was that for?" "Seriously, you tell her that you think she needs to be bribed to stay with you and you don't know why I hit you?" "I wasn't thinking straight." "Obviously!"

An hour later, Casey, Sarah and were sitting in front of the screen in Casey's living room listening to the General as she described that night's mission, because they knew that this session was being recorded, they were going through the motions of the roles they were supposed to be playing. Bryce opened the door without knocking and sauntered in about halfway through the briefing (ignoring the pistols pointed at him due to his unannounced entrance) with a lame excuse about traffic, crossing the room to sit right next to Sarah. Chuck didn't need to feign his annoyance at that move. Nor did the General when Bryce ignored her and made a point of putting the wedding rings on Sarah's finger as he said "Hello Mrs Anderson" with a smug grin. After the briefing, Sarah, Chuck and Casey headed off to work, while Bryce supposedly went back to Sarah's room, but an hour later he was in the Wienerlicous spinning tired old lines about how good the Andersons were and ignoring what Sarah was saying about the need to keep the Andersons strictly as a cover.

The arrangement was that Sarah would go back to her room to get ready for the mission (as all her things were there), and Chuck would meet them there, Casey was picking up the van and getting set up before hand. When Chuck arrived, Bryce let him in with a crack about "What, no rose for me this time loverboy?" Chuck answered that they were protecting their cover, and Bryce started taunting him about the Buy More. Looking at Bryce's things spread prominently around the room, Chuck asked if he was staying with Sarah, and he came back with a line about protecting their cover with a calculating look, asking how things were going between Chuck and her, Chuck said that they were good and asked why he was asking, so Bryce planted his barb "She's a beautiful girl, pretending to be your girlfriend, I was afraid that you'd let the lines get blurred and fall for her." Chuck was stewing as he came back with "What me, fall for Sarah, please.", but Sarah came came out of the bathroom looking as stunning as ever saying "Hey guys, so how do I look?" Chuck looked her in stunned admiration as usual then remembered the role he was supposed to be playing, saying "Good, real good, but red's not really my colour so.." as he turned away, turning back to grab his jacket as he added "Or salmon, or whatever that is." Sarah couldn't quite keep the hurt look off her face at his reaction, she looked at Bryce, but looked away before his face changed as he mused that this WAS going to be harder than he thought.

At the function, Chuck had no trouble faking his reaction as Bryce was all over Sarah, taking liberties because she couldn't reject him without blowing their cover, but just after they'd slipped away to "find somewhere quiet" he managed to get his head back in the game when he heard the Fulcrum agent telling the host that she wanted the chip. He followed them back the dining room and quickly located the servitor's nook, slipping in there so he could listen to what they were saying. He heard the Fulcrum agent shooting the host's guard and changing the deal (from $15 million to his life) and him wetting himself as he rabbited on about the chip being in his vault and he'd take her there, but he dropped his keys right in front of the gap in the door into the servitor's nook, so Chuck saw the keytab and flashed on the fact that that held the chip that they were after. As soon as they'd left he called Casey to tell him that the chip was on the keytab and that he'd gotten a good look at the Fulcrum agent, but just as he was saying that the door to the hall was pulled open and he was looking down the muzzle of the suppressed pistol that she'd used to kill the guard. She looked at him and told him that he was coming with her to explain how he knew she was Fulcrum, and unfortunately she knew what she was doing well enough to ensure that there was no way for him to engage her without getting shot.

Casey called the information through to Sarah and Bryce that the chip was in the keytab and the host was running out the front door (he'd bolted when she stopped to grab Chuck), and also that the Fulcrum agent was taking Chuck out the back. Sarah told Bryce to go after the host while she went after Chuck, but he stopped to argue with her, trying to convince her that she had to come with him to get the chip because their covers were on the chip, she gave up arguing with him and headed after Chuck while he called after her, then turned to follow the host, looking around aimlessly until the host drove straight past him because he couldn't believe that she'd go after Chuck instead of coming with him. Because he'd delayed her, the Fulcrum agent had Chuck at the gate by the time Sarah got out the door, she called to get Chuck out of the line of fire before engaging the Fulcrum agent, but the woman's driver turned up and she bolted to the car. Sarah ran up to make sure Chuck was OK and didn't see the bomb that the woman threw their way as she left until the last moment, and because she was kneeling over Chuck she bore the brunt of the blast and was thrown into a nearby car.

When Sarah got to hospital, she was pronounced OK except for a few bumps, bruises, and a minor concussion, but she was being kept in for a day to ensure that there weren't any complications that didn't show up initially. Chuck went to see her as soon as he was allowed, taking her a bunch of gardenias, as they were her favourite flowers. He was a bit put out when he saw that Bryce Larkin had already half filled the room with flower arrangements, but she grabbed his hand and reminded him that she'd chosen him, not Bryce, and made him calm down.

When Chuck got home from visiting Sarah, Bryce bailed him up and tried to convince him that Sarah had ruined the mission, lost the chip and almost got them both killed because of the feelings she had for him, trying to get him to break things off with her before she got hurt or killed (he was sure that playing that card would work with Chuck as he was always protective of the people he cared about), but Chuck was too tired and too worried about Sarah to play the game and just told him that Sarah could make her own choices.

The next morning, Sarah called Chuck and Casey to the hospital, she'd gotten another arrangement with a card saying "Let's meet in private 310-555-0187", but that wasn't Bryce's number or Bryce's style. While they were there she called the number, and it was the host from the function, the one who'd gotten away with the chip. Sarah let him know that she had her partners there with her and they negotiated a deal giving him protection in return of the chip, along with access to confirm that there were no other copies in existence. Casey and Chuck went to get him and the chip, and when they were both safely under the NSA's control, the General called Bryce to advise him that the mission was successfully concluded and he could return to his primary mission. When Bryce demanded to know why he'd been left out of the loop when this was his mission the General was glad to have a chance to bring the slimy little bastard down a few notches, pointing out "Agent Larkin, this was not YOUR mission, it was the team's mission, after the initial engagement was a failure because you didn't deliver your part, the team got a lead that they followed to recover the chip and ensure that there weren't any other copies, and they didn't bring you into that part of the operation because, as you noted to Agent Walker, you are deep cover and can't risk being exposed to Fulcrum, though that didn't appear to be an issue for some reason when you were renting cars, buying flowers and visiting Agent Walker at her cover job? Anyway, the mission has been successfully completed and now you can go back to your primary mission, and I request that you do this immediately before you endanger the covers of my team any further." He was still spluttering and trying to argue when she hung up on him.

Not about to let this go without a fight, Bryce went to the hospital to tell Sarah that Chuck and Casey had risked the chip with all their covers on it being lost to Fulcrum just so that they could cut him out of the operation, he didn't know what Casey's angle was, but Chuck was obviously trying to impress her and convince her that he was a spy, and that was dangerous, he'd get them killed if he kept trying to do things that he wasn't suited for. Sarah kept a slightly confused expression on her face while he was going on, playing up the concussion angle while inside she was furious. When he tried to convince her that she needed to do the smart thing and come back to him so that she could work with a real spy instead of some wannabe, she just said that she couldn't get out of this assignment without getting a black mark on her record, and she wasn't going to do that. When she said that, he started to say that her record was hardly spotless, what about... She looked him in the eye and asked "Yes?" and he shut up, remembering that the black mark (which had since been redacted) was for the mission in the Ukraine where he'd abandoned her and then reported that she'd screwed up and caused it to fail because he was sure she was dead and couldn't refute his story. He just mumbled that he must have been thinking of someone else, then went back to earnestly telling her that she needed to come with him, to go back to being a real spy with a real partner, they could be great like they were before. She looked him in the eye and feigned regret as she said that she couldn't, she had her assignment and she couldn't leave. After he'd left she grabbed whatever she could get her hands on and threw them at the flower arrangements he'd sent, knocking them over and smashing the vases. When a maintenance worker came to clean up the mess she apologised to him and asked for the gardenias that Chuck had brought her, asking him to get rid of the rest. Before he left town, Bryce went to have another stab at Chuck, ambushing him in the courtyard again and telling him that he was going to get Sarah killed if she stayed with him, because her feelings for him made her lose focus, he had to do the right thing for her, Chuck just nodded and said he'd try to fix it, going inside. When he was inside the phone rang, it was Sarah asking for a lift home as they were releasing her, so he quickly got changed and went to pick her up.

The General drew quite a bit of satisfaction from the fallout of the mission, the people who'd ordered her use Larkin for the mission because "no-one else could do it" were screaming that her people had lied in their reports about what happened to screw up the initial engagement, but they had to shut up when the surveillance video and comms recordings were provided that proved that, if anything, the team had been circumspect in what they'd reported. The women on the review committee in particular were both disgusted at Larkin and impressed with Agent Walker as they watched her flawless performance while she was repeatedly telling him to stop what he was doing and concentrate on what he was supposed to be doing for the mission, as they were watching where his hands and mouth were going while she was telling him this. The house video was the ultimate proof that Sarah's report was accurate and Bryce's was a complete fabrication, because it was quite clear where she told him to go after the chip while she did her job to protect the Intersect and the argument that he started at that point almost resulted in both being lost, if he had just gone to do his job, the chip would have never left the building and Sarah wouldn't have ended up in hospital. The fact that he blew it again when he was standing outside in a daze and let the host just drive straight past him just sealed the deal on the final report, where it was noted (over his supporters' complaints) that his unprofessional behaviour was unacceptable and had almost caused the mission's failure, and that the ultimate success was solely attributable to the Intersect Team. The addendum that the General had added regarding his assertion to Sarah that he had to stay with her because he couldn't afford to be seen getting a hotel room, followed by him openly renting cars, visiting her at her cover job (which blatantly endangered her cover), buying flowers from florists all over the place to send to her in hospital and visiting her in hospital, all provided further proof of unprofessional behaviour that was endangering an important operation, as well as her agents, was enough to get official sanctions put on Agent Larkin coming anywhere near the Intersect team or their operations again.

A couple of nights after the mission was wrapped up, the team was called over to the new setup in Glendale, it wasn't totally finished yet, but it was enough for a walk through. Casey and Sarah had been given the tags to get into the secure parking area, and they both knew the address (Casey had been there a few times and Sarah couldn't resist driving by to have a look on the way home from work after she'd read the file). Sarah was a little surprised to see Ellie, Jeff and Anna there with Casey, but she figured that they'd be working and living there, so they'd be getting a chance to look the place over, it was when they all went straight down to the operations base that she questioned Casey's actions, but he just smirked at her, telling her that it would all be explained soon.

They were sitting around the conference table when the screen lit up and General Beckman smiled at them, saying that it was nice to see that they'd all made it, when Sarah started to say something she stopped her, saying that she was getting the full story now, and started "Agent Walker, I think it's time to formally introduce you to everyone, Major Casey you know as an NSA Agent, but he is also a DIA Special Agent attached to my team on a protective detail. Next we have DIA Special Agent Charles Carmichael, also known as Charles Bartowski, DIA Agent John Smith and the Piranha, DIA Special Agent Eleanor Van Der Graaf, also known as Eleanor Bartowski and DIA Agent Susan Jones, DIA Agent Jeffrey Barnes, also known as Roscoe, and DIA Agent Anna Wu, also known as the Lotus, we also have (as someone else walked into the room to stand beside her) DIA Special Agent Mei-Ling Chiang, who I believe that you know as well?"

Sarah was looking around at everyone, trying to decide whether she'd gone crazy, when she felt her hand enclosed in Chuck's and that settled her down a little, when she saw that the General smiled and continued. "This is what I was telling you about in my office that day Sarah, as you found out a few nights ago, I am Chuck and Ellie's godmother, you also know their godfather, by the way, Bryan Mills (Sarah nodded), he sends his regards, there are still some things that we can't go into until we get your clearances up to the requisite level, but Chuck and Ellie's parents are interesting people, their mother is an agent who has been locked in a deep cover assignment for twenty years and for various reasons their father was unavailable to look after them for some time, too, so he asked Bry and I to look out for Chuck and Ellie in their absence. While we were doing that, it became obvious what amazing minds the two of them had, and some of the things that they came up with were too important not to advise the proper authorities, so they became attached to the DIA in analyst capacities at quite young ages." Sarah looked a question at her. "Chuck was thirteen and Ellie was sixteen when they officially started working for the DIA." Sarah whipped her head around to look at Chuck at that and he smiled and squeezed her hand, the General moved on.

"It probably won't surprise you that Chuck's specialities are primarily focussed around computers, though that's by no means all he does, and he was well known as the hacker The Piranha before he was fifteen, when he was sixteen he tracked down and architected the capture of a hacktivist called Roscoe who'd been extracting and leaking government secrets, but Chuck wouldn't let us dump him in a hole, so he arranged for Roscoe to join his cyber intelligence and security team, at the same time I arranged to get the then Captain Casey attached to my team on an as-required basis to beef up the protective details for Chuck and Ellie (and now Roscoe). Things worked on this basis for about five years when Chuck had to track down another hacker who was wreaking havoc in our systems, the Lotus, Chuck tracked her down and sent Casey to capture her, but once again he convinced the powers that be that it was stupid to waste her talents in a black site cell, and added her to his team too. About a year after that, Bryce Larkin framed Chuck for cheating and selling answers and managed to get him thrown out of Stanford, screwing his soon to be fiancé and taking her from him as icing on the cake and Chuck fell apart, this caused part of those issues we talked about the other night. The problem was that the agency psychiatrists decided that Chuck needed to be in a low stress environment to recover from that, so the agency did nothing to get his dismissal from Stanford overturned, and the Cover Bureau put him, Jeff and Anna in at the Burbank Buy More in the Nerd Herd to give him that low stress environment. A little after that, someone with authority over the Cover Bureau took umbrage with the fact that their father wouldn't do something he wanted, and set things in place to ensure that they were locked into that cover."

"Fast forwarding about five years, we had Bryce Larkin again intruding into Chuck's life when he sent him the Intersect, which he stupidly loaded (she added, casting a look Chuck's way), and you were sent in by Director Graham, I instructed Chuck to work you to find out what you were there for, but that didn't work out" At that point Ellie burst out laughing, they turned to look at her and she said she was remembering what Chuck had been saying about how crazy she was if she thought that he could work a goddess like Sarah, he couldn't come out with complete sentences when he was looking into her eyes. The General chuckled as well, remembering what Chuck had said to her, and took up the story again. "Yes, Chuck was rather intimidated by your beauty, but what was even more amusing to me was to watch how taken you were with him, so we made sure that your assignment was sealed in and it's gone well, aside from problems caused by other people." With that she turned to glare at Casey, and he looked guilty. "After you assisted the then Agent Cho in saving her brother and she defected, Chuck once again made a case to have her added to his team and we made that happen, and since then things have been going fairly well, aside from hiccups and interference from outside parties."

She looked at Chuck at that point and said "Back at Halloween, Chuck gave me a number of requirements, let's see whether I've met them, shall we?" With that she kicked off the replay of Chuck's list of demands, answering them as they were played, "Mr Grimes is not quite out of your lives yet, but when you move he will be" "I believe that Piranha Security & Technology meets your requirements, and we've factored in a residential change as well to get you away from the places they know about" "As advised, the party who took umbrage because your father refused to deliver what he wanted has been shuffled off to a minor administrative role until he retires" Chuck was shaking his head at her, begging her with his eyes not to play the last part, but she did anyway, she looked at Sarah rather than Chuck when she answered the last part "Chuck wanted to tell you he truth but we wouldn't let him until we were sure that it wouldn't get back to Langston Graham, when he was gone, we had the go ahead to proceed with this new plan, so we, I, thought it would be better left until we could show you everything. Now, Agent Walker I would like to offer you a place on our team, separate and in addition to your CIA role, to work with Chuck and the team on the other things that we're doing, are you interested in taking this role on?" Sarah nodded, unable to speak at that moment, Casey slid a pile of paperwork across the table and Sarah quickly went through it, reading and signing where required, when she slid it back to Casey the General smiled, and said that she'd leave them to check out their new home, but added one last point "Sarah, it will take a little time to process everything, but one thing I can tell you now is that Chuck and Ellie's mother is best know as Frost." The shocked look on Sarah's face made the smile on the General's widen into a grin as she disconnected the link.


	8. Cougars

**Usual disclaimer, no rights to any characters portrayed etc.**

They started the tour in the base underneath the building, after Chuck had confirmed to Sarah for the fifth time that his mother was in fact the legendary CIA Agent Frost. Sarah was getting excited about the facilities down there, the lower level was given over to a full function training centre dojo, gym and urban combat range. Chuck knew that Casey was up to something when they went into the range, but he only twigged as to what when Casey pointed to his near perfect score and asked if anyone would like to try and beat it? Sarah could see that Casey was looking straight at Chuck when he asked that, and turning to Chuck, the look he was giving Casey said that he better watch his back. "Chuck, what is it that Casey is trying to tell me that you're avoiding telling me?" He looked at her and his expression softened as he said "It's just something that I was hoping to find a better time to explain, I've had a bit of training over the last fifteen years." Casey snorted and held a loaded assault rifle out to him, pointing a remote over his shoulder and pressing a button as Chuck snatched it from him, Chuck put fifty rounds into the targets inside thirty seconds, with a perfect score, and he was none too gentle when he slapped the empty rifle (proved by the locked open breech) into Casey's chest and walked out. Sarah stared at the scoreboard in shock for a bit before turning and running after Chuck, catching him just before the elevator doors closed.

As the lift rose, Chuck tried to explain that he'd been living this life since he was thirteen, but the training he'd done didn't make him anything other than what he was, a nerd. Sarah shushed him, because even talking about this was upsetting him, and decided that she was going to kick Casey's arse for it sometime soon. They exited the lift in the penthouse and started looking around, it was impressive, the spacious and well appointed kitchen (suitable for catering major functions) opened onto the dining area, and hence the living area, which in turn opened onto the roof garden (and turning the lights on out there showed that it was large, lush and inviting, with a glass sided swimming pool on the far side). Wandering into the master bedroom, Chuck's eyes went wide, because he was wondering just what Auntie D was planning, this was meant to be his bedroom, so he was expecting something simple, but it was palatial, the walk in wardrobe was enormous and so was the ensuite, with a 2+ person Jacuzzi bath, double sinks and everything a girl could want for getting ready, he was looking around, stunned, so he didn't notice the little smile on Sarah's face as she wandered out of the room. He was still in there checking out the features when he heard Sarah call "Chuck, can you come in here please?" about thirty seconds later. He followed her voice and found her in the bedroom (well, workroom) next door, the ensuite and wardrobe in there were much more basic, and the room was smaller, this was more like what he was expecting. He took in the computer desk and banks of monitors against one wall and the workout gear, punching bags and wooden man, which were much as he'd expected (if higher spec), but Sarah was looking at something on the wall, and asked him if he could explain this to her? He walked over to see what she was looking at and swore, why would Uncle Bry do this to him? What she was looking at was Charles Carmichael's framed certificates of completion and course records from his SEAL training, he didn't really identify with them, yes, he'd gotten a sense of achievement from finishing the course, but as far as he was concerned it wasn't him. He tried to explain that Uncle Bry had gotten him into the training when he was seventeen and that he'd gone back to his real life after he finished it, but before he'd finished she interrupted him "Oh my God, you're Mowgli!" He looked at her and asked her quickly where she'd heard that name? At his tone she turned to look at him, carefully saying that she'd worked with SAD teams on more than a few of her missions, and on one mission one of the ex SEALs said something about wishing he could see her go up against Mowgli (obviously as a compliment). When he'd made that comment other SEALs started raving about Mowgli as well, talking about this nice, shy kid who'd come in and blown them away in most areas, Mowgli had been raved about by the SEALs on other missions too. She looked at him when she finished, asking "That was you, wasn't it?" "In a way" "What do you mean, in a way?" "It was Charles Carmichael, it wasn't ME." "I'm sorry, I don't understand, what does that mean?" He was quiet for a while as he tried to find the words. "Who you see in front of you is me, Chuck, Charles Carmichael is something else."

The others came in at that point to see Chuck looking upset and Sarah with her hand on his arm, looking up at him, Ellie came over to see what was on the wall and stiffened when she saw, saying "Uncle Bry!" in an angry, disappointed tone. She reached out to gently squeeze Chuck's shoulder, and share a look with Sarah, then turned and pushed the others out of the room. They stood towards the other end of the living area and watched as the two of them come out about five minutes later, holding hands, to go and check the other two bedrooms, which were less than the master bedroom but still quite spacious with nice ensuites and good wardrobe space. When they came up to the others, Chuck told Ellie that she had to take the master bedroom, as it was far more than he needed, and she laughed at him, saying "Oh I will be taking the master bedroom, in my apartment." He looked at her, confused, and asked what she was talking about? "I'm sharing with another girl, you're sharing with Sarah." Sarah looked up at him with shy hope, asking "If that's alright with you?" She was rewarded with one of his special smiles as he said "That's great, I mean yeah, that's fine." The others all smiled at the moment they were witnessing.

The others had been set aback when they'd listened to Ellie ripping into "Uncle Bry" on the phone, she'd kept her composure until she was out of the room, then she'd stormed off to the other end of the living area where she pulled her phone out and called him. They'd seen her angry at times over the years, but never this angry (though the look she threw at Casey when she described his stunt on the range came close). By the end of the call, Uncle Bry was left in no doubt that he'd screwed up royally and needed to make a proper apology to Chuck, as was Casey.

After that they went down to check out the other apartments, they weren't up to the level of the penthouse, but they were quite nice, spacious and upmarket. On the next level down there were four, three bedroom apartments. Like the penthouse, the smallest bedroom was made into the workroom with computer and workout gear (though there was a sofa bed in case it was needed). The girls' apartments were decorated in light and feminine themes, while the guys' had a more masculine tone. The last thing that they checked out was the offices. When he saw the nameplate on the receptionist's desk, Chuck turned to look at Ellie and she nodded, Sarah noted that but tabled it to ask about later. Chuck, Jeff and Anna were quite excited about the computer and electronics labs and Casey was quite impressed by the stockpiles of equipment that they had for their cover jobs, but it was when Sarah and Chuck checked out their offices that they got the biggest surprise, not the offices themselves, they were very nice and had everything that they could want, it was the names on the offices, Sarah Carmichael and Charles Carmichael, that was something that Sarah had missed in the cover file (along with their extra staff member, apparently). She turned to Casey and asked him if he had the cover file (he was still carrying the briefcase that held her DIA paperwork, and she was willing to bet the cover file was in there too) and he handed it over without a word, sure enough, their cover names were there, along with Josephine Lancaster, their "receptionist"? She also noted that Ellie was listed as Eleanor Van Der Graaf, a consultant who worked with the company at times, as was Bryan Mills and a few others. She couldn't complain as she realised that she'd read the page listing the structure options without really seeing that, but she did wonder what the General was playing at, and intended to ask her. Looking closer at the file, she saw that Sarah Carmichael was listed as the CEO of Piranha Security & Technology and her bio included her (real) Harvard qualifications in International Relations (Business) and Languages, while Charles Carmichael was listed as the CTO with his Stanford qualifications in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, so the agency must have had his expulsion and everything associated with it expunged and his degrees officially registered. It appeared that they were well entrenched in this cover as professional husband and wife, and it worried her a little that she was actually happy about that.

When the others headed off to check out their offices, Sarah grabbed Chuck and drew him into her office, she showed him the file again, specifically the sections about their cover life, apologising that she hadn't noted that before, and pointing out that they'd really have to share the master bedroom to make this cover work. Chuck looked stunned as he tried to take it in, but when she asked if he was OK with this he gave her a brief hug as he said "Yeah, yeah it's fine.". Just before they left the office, though, he stopped and pulled his phone out, making a call. "Hi Auntie D, thanks our new life, but tell me, what did you give us a wedding present again? (he listened to her evading for a bit before he went on) Oh well, I expect that Josie will be bringing it then? Anyway, what I called to ask you was, what name will be on Sarah's DIA ID? Yeah, that's what I thought, bye." and hung up. Sarah looked at him and when he didn't say anything at first she asked what WOULD be on her DIA ID? "Special Agent Sarah Carmichael" She looked at him for a bit and then said "Well, it looks like the Carmichaels are official, then?" "Apparently so, I'm sorry about this." "No, Chuck, you had nothing to do with it, and it certainly won't be the worst gig I've had." (She added with a smile.) "While we're here, you and Ellie obviously know who our receptionist is, who is she?" "She's a young agent in the DIA, but more to the point you know her parents." She looked at him confused and then it dawned on her and she said "The General?" he nodded, adding "and Roan Montgomery."

They wound up the tour soon after that and headed home, the rest of them were excited about where they were going with this, but Chuck and Sarah didn't sleep that night, thinking about the connotations this would have for them.

After checking out PST, it was a big come down to go back to their shit lives at the Buy More and Weinerlicious, but they told themselves that it wouldn't be long before all this was behind them. Sarah went over to the Buy More to see Chuck in the morning, but cut her visit short when she saw a face from her past. As she was crossing the car park she kept checking the Buy More, but as she wasn't followed, she thought she'd managed to dodge a bullet. Chuck came over for lunch, as usual, and they were laughing about the fact that she'd finally managed to get the crap they made there to be edible, just as she was about to leave, when the door opened and the one who'd been in the Buy More walked in. Sarah got up and went behind the counter while the woman looked at Chuck before moving to the counter. Her first words were "I know you, and I never forget a face." Sarah tried to evade with a laugh, saying that she must have one of those familiar faces, and then tried "Oh, wait, I was in a commercial once, maybe you saw that?", but she wasn't going to be put off, staring at Sarah until she said "That's it, we went to high school together!" Sarah kept trying to evade, saying that she must have her confused with someone else, but she had her teeth into it now. "No, you look different, for the better, really, but… Jenny!" Sarah was stumped, she couldn't come up with a response at that moment and the woman forged ahead "That's it, Jenny Burton!" Sarah just stood there, giving her the deer in the headlights look as she went on "I'm Heather Chandler!" That gave Sarah a flashback to what both she, and this bitch, had been like back then, and neither was a fond memory for her, but the woman just kept going. "Well, Heather Ratner now, I married Mark Ratner" This brought up another flashback to how Mark used to be stuffed in lockers by the dumb jock types that Heather hung out with. "Oh, Heather, of course, how have you been?" Just then the door opened again and Heather's husband walked in and she turned to him "Oh my god, Mark, look who it is, Jenny Burton" "Who?" "Jenny Burton from high school, you know, the one?" "Oh, yeah, hi Jenny." "Headin' down for the reunion this weekend?" "Oh, no, I'm not much of a reunion person" She looked at Chuck in a mild panic, almost begging him to bail her out, and Heather turned to look at him.

"Is this your boyfriend?" "Yeah." Heather advanced on Chuck with her hand out, saying. "I'm Heather, we all went to high school together." "Wow, what are you doing here? "We live in Westlake now because it's closer to Mark's work, but we go down there all the time." "I bet you do, the weather's real nice this time of year." Mark piped up "Come on now, the weather's always great in San Diego!" Chuck just grinned and said "Yeah, I'm Chuck, by the way." Mark stepped over to shake his hand "Chuck, I'm Mark, Ratner." Chuck had a flash and tried to cover it up by saying "That's a hell of a grip you've got there Mark." He looked apologetically at Sarah before saying "Hey, what are you guys doing for dinner tonight? You got any plans? Because we could all just get together and reminisce about old times?" Mark smiled, saying "Sounds great!" (getting a disgusted look from Heather) They sorted out their plans and the Ratners left, Chuck turned to Sarah and apologised, explaining about the flash. She wasn't happy, trying to explain that there were parts of her past that she wasn't proud of and she didn't really want to have exposed. Chuck apologised again and said that he'd do what he could to keep the discussion off her, with Heather being as tied up in herself as she was, it shouldn't be too hard, should it? Sarah managed a smile at that and rested her forehead on his chest, she really wasn't looking forward to this at all. When she was OK, he called the General and explained about the flash and the fact that they'd set up dinner that night in an effort to get some more information out of them.

When they got home, they all went to Casey's for a briefing. The analysts had pulled together more information for them to work with, Mark was an engineer at Winthrop Keller Aeronautics, cleared to work on the plans for future weapons technology, specifically the next generation of F22 Raptors, a super bomber. The indications were that parts of this technology had been leaked, so they needed to go to dinner with them and try and get more intel. Sarah tried to get out of it, pointing out that it was from a very sensitive part of her past prior to joining the CIA, but while the General could see that this was upsetting her (and noted her looks Chuck's way which made it obvious that she didn't want Chuck to know anything about that part of her life), the risk of this technology getting into the wrong hands was too much to be able to let her out of it.

When Chuck turned up at Sarah's hotel room, she was still getting ready and obviously wasn't in the mood to do this. Chuck went straight up to her and pulled her into his arms, so she relaxed into his embrace. When she was a bit better, he gently pointed out that he really needed a few details, at least, to make their act believable, she nodded, face still in his chest and gave him the cliff notes version, Buchanan High, Class of '98, Heather was the cheerleader bitch who made her life hell, Mark was a nerd who got stuffed into lockers, she was in band and tried to be invisible. That last made Chuck question it. "You, invisible, I can't imagine you not stopping the room when you walk in." That made her look up and say that she didn't always look like this, but she reached up to gently kiss his lips .

At dinner, Heather was being a bitch as per expectations, when she asked how long they'd been together Chuck looked at Sarah saying that he couldn't remember exactly? Sarah said that she guessed it was about two and a half years? But nothing before Chuck really registered now. Mark was looking at his watch and getting nervous, leading to Heather making a few biting cracks at him, so he said he needed to be excused and left in a hurry. When he'd left, Heather started putting her claws into Sarah and Sarah was nervous, wondering what was going to come out. When Heather started homing in with questions about whether she got down to San Diego to see her father much, Sarah got desperate enough to spill wine in Chuck's lap so he'd have to go and clean himself up. When Chuck got into the men's room, he found Mark bailed up by two men, and his flash on them identified them as Russian Mob. As soon as Chuck came in, they pushed Mark into a corner and came at him, and he grinned, because as of last night, he didn't have to play the impotent nerd any more for Sarah. It only took him five minutes to take both of them out and then he checked on Mark.

Back at the table, Sarah had Casey hanging around as a servitor, trying to carve the meat at the table while Heather was sinking her claws in. Sarah tried to deflect by asking her how she stayed in shape, and had to cover her disgust when she smugly said that she was a black belt, she was obsessed with karate because she had the hots for her instructor, Mark was a really nice guy, he didn't deserve a bitch like this. Then Heather started in again, saying that she obviously didn't want to talk about her Dad in front of Chuck and asked whether he knew? Casey was showing way too much interest in what was being said, so she stood up to take over the carving and quietly told him to go check on Chuck. When Casey got there, he secured the mob goons and then went out to get the van, and when he came back they carried the goons out with Mark going with them. Casey took Mark and the goons away while Chuck went back to the table. Casey dropped the goons off at the NSA facility and interrogated Mark with the General on the line. Between them they convinced Mark that he needed to cooperate with them and meet with his contacts at the school reunion if he wanted protection against them.

After Casey took Mark back to the restaurant, Casey and the General discussed how to break the news to Sarah that she had to go to her actual high school reunion, and the General decided that this was a job for Chuck. When she called him in the morning to explain what was required, he was less than impressed, he conceded that he probably had a better chance of convincing her than anyone else, but he didn't like doing this to her. Chuck asked Ellie's advice on the best way to break news like this to Sarah, and went with Ellie's suggestion of picking up a pretty dress for her (so the night wouldn't be a total loss). After Ellie shot him down on her helping him select the dress ("Pick something that you'll love her in, the look in your eyes will make it worth it for her." was all she'd give him on that front), he went out and bought a dress that he thought she'd look lovely in, and went to her place. Sarah was in workout gear, pounding the hell out of the bag in her room while she was remembering all the taunts, the sleazy come ons and impositions, everything that had made her life hell while she was there, especially after her father was arrested, so while she'd normally love to see Chuck, at that moment she wasn't in the mood. When she opened the door to see him holding a box, she asked what that was for, it wasn't her birthday? He snorted, saying that he at least knew one day it wasn't now, and asked if he could come in? So she waved him in and closed the door behind him. He pushed the box at her and she opened it, pulling out the dress. She started to ask "Why do I need a new dress?" when she suddenly realised that he was dressed up, and gave him an accusing look. "I'm sorry, the General called me this morning to say that our next mission is at the reunion, and that I had to be the one to tell you. Please believe me, I don't want to make you do this, but you heard what she said about the plans, we need to stop them." She leant in to kiss him on the cheek, saying "I know Chuck, it's just that high school was a terrible time for me." When he was obviously about to say that high school was a bad time for everyone, she cut in "Trust me Chuck, I'm pretty sure that my high school experience was worse than most people's" He nodded, asking her if she could do this, if not he'd just call Auntie D and tell her that they weren't doing it. She looked at him, knowing that he would do this for her if she couldn't handle it, and knowing that he'd be there for her to help her get through it, so she shook her head, saying that she could do it with his help. His smile made her think that she could get through anything at that moment, so she smiled back, saying "I guess I better get ready then." and turned to head into the bathroom, peeling her sports bra off as she went. It was only after she got into the bathroom that she realised what she'd just done, when did she get so comfortable with him that that became OK? The thought of the expression that he'd almost certainly have on his face at the moment made her grin as she got into the shower.

As they walked into the reunion, Sarah started doubting that she could do this, so she hung onto Chuck's arm and thought about the look on Chuck's face when she came out of the bathroom in a towel, apologising that she'd forgotten to get her things before she went in (well, that part was true enough) as she bustled about getting her lingerie and coming back to the bed to get the dress. She wasn't sure which particular devil made her do it, but she did have fun resting one hand on his shoulder as she leaned across him to grab the dress, and she gave him a quick kiss on the lips before she headed back into the bathroom. She left the door open this time so that they could talk (knowing that Chuck would never peek, he was too much of a gentleman), hmm, that memory may just get her through the night. She went up to get her name tag and had to put up with the incredulous looks and questions from the women there that SHE was Jenny Burton, and as luck may have it, when they stopped and Chuck told her she was going to be OK, they were right in front of her yearbook picture (they had everyone's pictures all over the place). When Chuck looked at the picture and then told her that she may have looked different but she was still beautiful to him, she wrapped herself around him in a lingering hug, he always seemed to know what she needed to hear.

Unfortunately it went downhill right after that, as they were circulating, the worst of the sleazebags, Dick Duffy, came up and tried to crack onto her (launching straight into the same pathetic pick up lines that he'd been using back then) right in front of Chuck, the bastard hadn't changed a bit from when he was trying to pressure her into accepting his offers of a pity fuck back at high school. Chuck pushed in front of him and introduced himself as Jenny's boyfriend, but that didn't slow him down in the least, it just gave him a chance to bring up her father and how he'd been in a cell for ten years. Chuck was looking away from his face, trying to choke down the desire to beat the shit out of this bastard, when he flashed on Duffy's tattoos, which indicated Russian Mob connections. He made an excuse to get them away and told Sarah about the flash. The chance to take this bastard down at last actually cheered her up so she told him to get Mark to set up the meeting while she got Casey. Mark set up the meet and Chuck stayed with him while Sarah and Casey got ready to go after Duffy. While he was talking to Chuck, Mark was looking at Heather and trying to explain why he did what he did, that he wasn't thinking straight because they'd threatened his wife, his next words resonated with Chuck though. "I'm just a guy who likes math, and somehow I got a beautiful girl like that to fall in love with me, I have to pinch myself sometimes, like I'm dreaming." At that moment Sarah walked back into the room and looked at Chuck, so the next words that Chuck registered were "How can I expect a cool guy like you to understand?" and Chuck looked at him "You know what Mark? Sometimes the nerd gets the girl." When Sarah went out to talk to Duffy, he was coming onto her and groping her, so she just took him out with a roundhouse kick to the face. At least Casey got a chance to come out with one of the quips he enjoyed so much "Great, well he's a perv, but we don't know whether he's the perp" Unfortunately when they checked his car he turned out to be just a small time hood dealing black market booze and knockoffs.

Inside, thing heated up when Heather went to the actual Russian contacts that Mark was supposed to meet and told them that Mark had spilled everything to the feds. When they started to make their move Chuck flashed on them and made sure he tagged them for Sarah and Casey, but just then Sarah saw Heather slipping out and realised that she was part of this, so she went after her, leaving the guys to handle the others. It turned out that all it took to get Heather to spill was to ask, because she was so arrogant she quite happily admitted that as soon as she found out that Mark wasn't greedy enough to go for the big bucks, she did a deal with the Russians to use him to get the money she thought she deserved. Problem was, when she ambushed Sarah in the locker room, Sarah found out that she was actually quite good (apparently she'd been paying attention to more than her karate instructor's arse), the fight migrated to the showers and when some of the pipes were broken off they had water going everywhere, which led to Sarah losing her footing and smashing her head into the tiles, dazing her long enough to give Heather a chance to get out and grab a gun, not that that was enough to defeat Sarah in the end. The guys went after the Russians and Casey got the chance to scratch his ever present itch, because he was the one with a gun who could engage the Russians at thirty yards. They left Casey to do the cleanup and headed home after that. In Sarah's room, she hung onto Chuck, not knowing how to thank him for getting her through that, eventually she stepped back and told him she'd answer a few questions about her past, but he told her that he would wait until she was ready to tell him what she wanted. With that, he told her to get some rest, kissed her goodnight and went home, leaving her staring after him, even if she hadn't been lost before, she sure was now.

The word came that they were go for the move, so Chuck, Anna and Jeff put in their week's notice at the Buy More, and Sarah put in her notice at the Wienerlicious. They started packing the things that they really wanted, NSA movers would handle everything else. Of course as soon as they heard that Chuck, Jeff and Anna had put their notice in, Morgan, Lester, Big Mike and the rest of the Buy Morons went into overdrive to win their besties back and keep them at the store. Luckily the idiots were all afraid of Ellie, so when she pointedly told them that Chuck wasn't there and to GO AWAY while holding a large kitchen knife every time they turned up at the door, they tended to scurry away very quickly, though seeing someone the size of Big Mike scurrying was quite a disturbing sight. That was at least something that Sarah didn't need to worry about, she'd frightened the various managers at the Wienerlicious so much that, irrespective of how hot she was, they would be glad to see her go and not have to worry about the apparently very real threats that she made whenever they said something inappropriate or irritating.

When the week was up, Chuck, Anna and Jeff, Sarah and Ellie disappeared (she officially went away for a five day medical convention while Chuck and Sarah were off on a two weeks break before they started their new jobs), and the next day, Casey had to "go home" to look after his mother.

When Casey called Big Mike to say that he wouldn't be coming back and no-one came back from holidays at Chuck's, the Buy Morons went to see Jeff and Anna, and even Sarah (Morgan had been following Chuck and knew where she lived) at home, only to find that they'd all left. Ellie's and Casey's apartments went on the market a couple of weeks after that, and that convinced Morgan that they'd been kidnapped, so he went into the local police stations to demand that they find his buddies so often that some of the police ended up telling him that if he didn't stop coming in, HE would disappear. Casey was tapped into all the feeds and was having the time of his life watching it, he said it was better than any soap that had ever been made.

They took a week off to settle into the Fish Palace (Anna named the facility, and no-one could think of any reason to object, so it stuck), the adjustment was hardest for Chuck and Sarah, as they went from being kept apart, to sleeping in the same bed every night. They weren't "doing" anything, but they were waking up snuggled together every morning and they both found that they quite liked that. Another adjustment that they had to make for the cover was wearing wedding rings all the time, they couldn't just put them on whenever they were going to a function, because it would have been obvious that they weren't wearing them normally, so their wedding rings became a permanent fixture. The only downside that Chuck could think of with their arrangement was that if they were in a hurry to get ready (for a mission or anything), he'd usually end up having to use the ensuite in the workroom because Sarah took over the main bedroom's ensuite.


	9. Lichtenstein

**Usual disclaimer, no rights to any characters portrayed etc.**

There were a few stumbling blocks which got in the way of their settling into the Fish Palace and PST, prime among them being the arguments that Chuck was having with both of his godparents, the one with Uncle Bry was fairly simple, he was so proud of Chuck's achievements and as a soldier he couldn't really understand why Chuck wouldn't be, but Chuck had tried to make it clear to him on more than one occasion that he wasn't proud of that sort of thing, not the same way Uncle Bry was, so for him to put up all the certificates in their apartment the way he did without his agreement, that was way over the line and he wasn't about to forgive and forget in a hurry. The one with Auntie D was more serious, he wanted to know what the fuck her plans and motivations were in regard to the Carmichaels, and she wasn't being at all forthcoming with answers to those questions. He felt that she'd blind sided them with this (though Sarah said that it was her fault because she hadn't registered where that was outlined in the file, and that was partly on him because his reaction to the plan pretty much pushed Sarah to give Auntie D her answer without going over everything with a fine tooth comb, as she would usually), and there was some agenda behind it.

Another stumbling block was projecting the necessary professional image, the adjustments needed were difficult for Chuck, Jeff and Anna, they'd gone from university environments to minimum wage tech workers (thanks to the idiots in the cover bureau), so other than when Chuck was sent on missions with Sarah and Casey, they'd never had to pull off an upmarket image, and pretty much screamed minimum wage. Sarah and Ellie primed Chuck for the changeover, because they'd thrown away most of his clothes when they moved, they kept his favourite T-shirts and jeans, and pretty much everything else got trashed. So when they moved in, most of his part of the wardrobe was already filled with new clothes, for Jeff and Anna, they went through everything after they'd moved in, throwing out most of it and getting new gear that fit the proper image, Auntie D also sent in hair stylists and the girls gave Anna advice on more appropriate makeup to finish the image adjustments.

When they moved into their apartment, Chuck and Sarah had their first taste of a relationship argument, because Sarah put her foot down about any of Chuck's posters or nerd paraphernalia being on display in their bedroom or the living areas of the apartment, arguing that they'd be expected to entertain there, and therefore they had to project the proper image. Neither of them were prepared to back down and the situation got so tense that Chuck just walked out, Sarah watched him taking off down the street like a bat out of hell on his bike, and then just sat down and cried. She had stopped crying by the time he'd calmed down and came home, but it was so evident that she had been crying so that he felt incredibly guilty for doing this to her. He took her in his arms and apologised for upsetting her, which made her apologise for being inflexible, and they ended up negotiating space for a few items that could be explained away as part of his uber nerd CTO personality in the bedroom and living areas, and he could put up whatever he wanted in the workroom.

While she was helping him put his things up in the workroom, she asked if he wanted to take down the SEAL certificates, saying that she didn't really understand why they upset him as much as they did, but he shouldn't have to look at them if they did upset him. He came up behind her and put his arms around her, trying to explain how that side of him was something he was a little uncomfortable with generally, a lot sometimes. He explained how Ellie had raised him to not harm anything, and how that was a core part of who he was, so being good at death and mayhem went against his core values, and that was why he locked all of those things away as Charles Carmichael, to keep them away from Chuck. He finished the explanation by saying that that was why he'd been upset by seeing them, because they'd rubbed his face in the fact that Charles Carmichael was a part of him, too. Sarah had relaxed back into him as he talked, comfortable and relaxed in his arms, and when he finished she nodded, saying that the certificates should come down then, but she was surprised when he disagreed, twisting in his arms to look at him. "Why, you've just explained why they upset you, and that's a valid reason, why would you want to be reminded of something you don't like?" "Because it is part of me, and I did have a good time training with those guys, I've got some pictures from back then if you're interested (she nodded), you may recognise some of the guys." She looked up hesitantly, saying "I've got some pictures from some of my training and exercises, stored away, too, if you'd be interested in seeing them?" Chuck grinned, saying "Yeah, that would be great." As Chuck had all his stuff there, he dug out the drive that had his digital picture albums and plugged it into the computer, as they were going through the images they were talking about the people in them, and Sarah was pointing out the ones she'd worked with, she was actually excited when she pointed out the one who'd told her that he'd like to see a competition between them. Looking through them like this, Chuck was reminded that he'd actually enjoyed his time back then with those guys, and printed off a number of pictures that they both liked to put up on the wall with the certificates.

The initial work for PST was government contracts, they had to build a customer base to show that they were a legitimate business, and they were reaching out to get that started, but the government work was getting them started, and building their reputation.

They did have setback when one of their engagements involved someone that Sarah had worked with in the CIA, and he'd assumed that she'd do whatever he wanted to keep him from telling her "husband" what she used to do. Sarah broke his arm when he started violently groping her and trying to stick his hand up her skirt, but Chuck walked in just as he was saying "You've had it bitch, you'll see how much hubby wants you after he finds out you were nothing but a CIA fuck toy!" The guy had just finished his threat when a hand clamped on the back of his neck, digging into the nerve points so he couldn't move and a cold, hard voice hissed in his ear "Hubby knows that his wife was CIA, and she was always far more than something like you could imagine." With that he pounded the guy's face down into the conference table with enough force to do significant damage, took Sarah's hand and walked out, pulling out his phone in the reception area to call Anna and Jeff and tell them "Pack up, we're out of here!" Jeff tried to ask what was going on, but shut up and did as he was told when Chuck coldly asked him what part of that didn't he understand? Sarah was looking at him, unsure of who he was at that point, but when he held his hand out to her she came into his arms. The receptionist was staring at them and Chuck looked at her over the top of Sarah's head, saying that she may want to send someone to conference room 302, because it sounded like someone may have had an accident in there. When Jeff and Anna turned up, Chuck's expression made them swallow any questions they had and they all left. As soon as the got back to PST, Chuck sent an email to the head of the department where they were (BCCing the General) to say that Piranha Security and Technology would not be providing any services to their department from that point, and they should expect the police to investigate the sexual assault of his wife by one of their management personnel in their offices. He added that PST considered any contractual requirements to do with them null and void in view of the actions against PST personnel within their offices and that all relevant information would be brought to the table if they attempted any legal action.

The General called ten minutes later to ask what happened? When Chuck said that the email explained it, she demanded to know what really happened, but was quite taken aback when his reply was "That was what fucking happened! He was ex-CIA and he decided that she'd give up whatever he wanted to keep her secrets, she's got a torn blouse and skirt to show how she struggled, and then she broke his arm, I came in as he was telling her that he'd make sure that her husband knew what she'd done, so I told him I already knew and we left." "You just left? You said that Sarah broke his arm, where did the rest of the damage come from?" "He may have hit his head on the table after we talked?" "You can't do this, we need to be able to promote you as a legitimate business!" "Exactly" "What do you mean by that?" "Would a real business run by a husband and wife let it slide when some scumbag tried to rape his wife?" There was silence on the line. "The answer is no, a real husband would do what he had to to take the bastard apart and there's no way they'd deal with the organisation where something like that happened!" "Are you saying that you did this to shore up the cover of PST as a legitimate business?" "Of course not, I did it because he hurt Sarah, but you know that what I said is right!" "I'll see what I can do to handle this, goodbye Chuck." "Bye." Slamming the phone down, Chuck sat back, trying to compose himself, but he looked up to see Sarah standing in his office.

"How much of that did you hear?" "All of it, I think." "I'm sorry, I know that I overstepped my boundaries on this." "What do you mean?" "I'm not your husband, we're not even in a real relationship, I shouldn't have interfered with your business." "But?" "I care about you, and when I saw what he'd tried to do to you and heard what he was saying to you, I saw red." "You do know that some parts of what he was saying had an element of truth, don't you?" Chuck nodded. "I hope you also know that I care about you, too, and that I wouldn't have agreed to live with you like we are if I didn't?" This time Chuck's nod was a little more hesitant, and Sarah came around the desk to pull his chair around so that she could sit in his lap. "Don't apologise for caring about me or trying to protect me, I love that, even though it's supposed to be my job to protect you, and as you explained to the General, you didn't overstep your boundaries, you should do that for your wife." With that she leant in to kiss him, it wasn't urgent like the serious kisses they'd had to date, but it was a long, slow, sweet kiss that was rather nice. When they pulled back, Chuck asked "What was that for?" "A thank you, but also I've been thinking that we need to work on our cover more, so we're believable." "I suppose more practice would help." "Ahuh." That led to another kiss, longer than the first, but just as nice.

Supplying video of the attack on Sarah (with the audio scrambled enough to cover the CIA references) ensured that the department cancelled their contract with PST without any penalties, and they didn't badmouth PST to other departments. Casey went to have a talk to the guy in hospital to explain to him in no uncertain terms what would happen if he EVER talked about Sarah Walker again, at all. Casey added a little to his damages, because though he wouldn't admit it, he was protective of Sarah too and wanted to hurt this little bastard. He left with the parting shot of telling him to keep his eyes open, because hubby still had a score to settle with him.

A few weeks after that, Sarah came into Chuck's office, looking worried. The fact that she closed the door as she came in said that something was up. Sarah came around the back of the desk, and sat on the edge near him, looking hesitant. "Sarah, what's up?" She looked at him for a little while and then said "You heard what Duffy said about my Dad, didn't you?" It was Chuck's turn to look hesitant "Yes, I wasn't trying to pry in your business but I was right there." She grabbed his hand. "No Chuck, that's fine, I just had to confirm that you'd heard, you see, Dad's out, and he wants to see me." "That's great, isn't it?" "I don't know, he knows nothing about my life now, and knowing him he's probably just here to try and rope me into one of his scams again." She stopped and looked at him. "Chuck, my dad's a conman and I used to work with him before he got arrested and I got dragged into the CIA." He looked at her for a moment before saying. "OK, that's who you were, but it's not who you are, leaving whatever scams he may be trying to pull out of it, won't you regret it if you throw away a chance to see him while you can?" She looked thoughtfully at him and nodded, asking. "So do you think I should see him?" "I think you should do what makes you happy, and I think seeing your Dad would do that." "Yeah, I think you're right, thanks." With that she leant in to kiss him on the cheek and head back to her own office.

That night, she finished getting ready and asked him "How do I look?" "As beautiful as ever." got him a smile, then she looked at her watch and said "I better get going, see you when I get home." standing on tip toe to give him a kiss before turning for the elevator, only to be stopped by Chuck calling her name, she looked back and he held up his left hand, pointing to his wedding band, she looked down at her own left hand and said "Oh, yeah.", slipping her rings off as she came back to hand them to him and reaching up for another quick kiss as she said "Thanks." Her dinner with her father went as expected, he was back in the game again and he was boasting about this plum gig he had in play at the moment, but when he said who he was scamming she got worried, because Sheik Rajiv Amad was a name she knew quite well. They finished the night with him telling her that he was in town for a few days and that he'd like to see her again, and her telling him she'd like that. As soon as she got home she got changed into something comfortable and they went down to the dungeon (as they'd affectionately named the base) after calling Casey to meet them down there. When she informed the General that she'd met her father and had some intel about a person of interest that he was currently conning, the General looked at Chuck in disapproval as he'd obviously known about this, but he just stared her down, something of a reversal for them. As her father had already gotten himself into this, Sarah didn't have an issue with using his connection to try and get to Sheik Amad, especially as capturing the Sheik would improve her father's chances of surviving, so she set up another dinner with her father the next night so he could meet her boyfriend. She also had to get a room back at the hotel so she could cover up where they were living, as that would have set off alarm bells with her father.

When they met for dinner, Jack presumed that Chuck was her con partner and was telling stories about the cons they'd been running when she was a kid, the more stories that came out, the more Sarah's fingers were digging into Chuck's leg, so he leaned over to kiss her and whisper in her ear that it would be OK, and he was there for her. When he saw her surprised look, he replayed what he'd said in his head, and realised what he'd said was "Don't worry, it'll be over soon, I love you" It was Chuck's turn to stop then, but Sarah smiled and leant in for a quick kiss. Jack was looking at them with a questioning look, but Sarah just smiled at him, saying "Private joke." When her father let them in on the fact that he was pulling a "Lichtenstein" on the Sheik (which had to be explained to Chuck as a German billionaire who needs to liquidate something fast to do a deal he's in the middle of), selling him the Nagamichi Plaza building, they tried to see where the deal was going, but he said that he had the $700K finder's fee and he'd be gone before anyone knew a thing, so it looked like a bust. After the dinner, as they were leaving Chuck saw a party coming into the hotel and flashed on them, realising that it was the sheik that Jack was certain would never find him. Sarah told Chuck to stay out of the way and headed back to see what she could do about the situation, but any chance of surprise went down the drain when Jack dragged her into the middle of things as soon as he saw her, telling them that she was Lichtenstein's personal assistant. She tried to organise a meeting for the following day, but Jack was panicking and giving the game away, so Sarah ended up being held at gunpoint with the Sheik was about to tell his men to get rid of them because there was no Lichtenstein when a woman started calling for him by name. When someone snapped his fingers and waved her over to take the note, the group moved to him and Jack introduced the Sheik to Her Lichtenstein. Sarah stepped in to say that he spoke very little English and organised for them to have the 2:00 PM meeting that Sarah had been asking for, but of course there was no remorse from Jack for almost getting his daughter killed, he was too busy crowing that he was right about them being in the game.

The next morning, Sarah was in the middle of apologising to the General for getting Chuck in the middle of a dangerous situation when she cut her off and said that this was their best chance of getting access to the Sheik's accounts, so she instructed them to go forward with the deal to sell Nagamichi Plaza so that they could get at least $10 million from him, and that would allow them to track the accounts properly. For whatever reason (part was bound to be the fact that Chuck was pushing back on her at the moment), she was being intractable, so Sarah had to go back to talk her father into doing a bigger deal than he had, luckily, greed was his prime motivator, so when he saw dollar signs he was in, though he was put out when Sarah halved his $5 million cut to $2.5 Million when she said he had to use her team, as she was leaving he told her that Chuck must have dropped his ATM card, and handed it back to her, making a crack about the fact that they couldn't be doing very well if that was all he had in his account. Sarah grabbed the card off him and stormed out to call the guys, pissed off that he'd pick pocketed Chuck and checked into his accounts, but glad that Chuck only carried the cards for his "safe" Chuck Bartowski accounts that had limited funds with him, most of his money was in his Carmichael accounts and he left them locked away most of the time (when they were going somewhere as Charles and Sarah Carmichael he'd swap his Chuck Bartowski wallet for his Charles Carmichael one, but most of the time he stayed as Chuck).

After she called the guys, they all met up in "her" hotel room and planned out the operation, Jack was a little put out when Casey insisted that they use "their" account for the funds transfer, but not much (that probably should have told them something). They only had until 1:00 to get everything together, so they were madly running around to get it together. Sarah had to admit that Jack's plan to empty the floor they would be using went pretty well, and they got everything changed over to show Lichtenstein Enterprises with a few minutes to spare before the Sheik and his retinue arrived. Sarah thought that they were in trouble when the Sheik insisted that they use his interpreter for the discussions, until Chuck burst into a torrent of perfectly fluent German abuse at the arrogant tone that the Sheik's interpreter used with him, telling him that the deal was off. When the interpreter repeated this to the Sheik, he was pistol whipped to the floor and the Sheik pointed at Sarah, shouting that the deal was made and she was to tell Lichtenstein that he better go through with it, when she repeated this to Chuck he waved his hand dismissively at the laptop set up for the funds transfer and the Sheik put the details in for the transfer, once he'd done that, Chuck snapped his fingers and headed for the door with Sarah at his heels. Jack packed up the laptop as he told the Sheik that their lawyers would send over all the paperwork as soon as they'd put it together and followed the others.

Back at "Sarah's" room, they were celebrating the successful con and Sarah was basking in the warm glow that things were good with Chuck and her father had finally done something that worked out for her when Jack went down the hall to get more ice. Just after that, Casey got a call from the General asking when the transfer was going through, when he told her that it had gone through an hour before the shit hit the fan, because nothing had gone into the nominated account. Sarah was kicking herself for not picking up on her father's attitude when Casey insisted that they use "their" account for the transfer. She and Casey searched the hotel, but her father was long gone. When they got to her father's hotel, he had of course left there as well, and he wasn't picking up any calls, so they had to go back to the Fish Palace and report that he'd disappeared with the $10 million, no-one was happy about that. In their apartment that night, Sarah was blaming herself for the way things had turned out because she hadn't seen the signs, When she said that it was her fault for the third time, Chuck took her hands, looked in her eyes and started talking. "No it's not, sixteen years ago, my father left Ellie and me, he's an unusual man, I guess that's generous. Our mother had disappeared about two and a half years earlier, and he was all we had, and yet he left us with nothing more than a phone call to our godparents to keep an eye on us, and you know what happened then. It took me years to accept that it wasn't my fault, but I finally came to the realisation that it was on him, not me. You need to know that your father's sins are his, and not your's, you can't blame yourself for this." Sarah looked at him with tears in her eyes. "That was pretty articulate for someone wearing a Star Wars T-shirt." She gave him a teary smile. "Thank you Chuck, I don't know what I'd do without you." As she relaxed into his arms she (only just) heard him whisper into her hair "If I have my way you'll never have to find out." and she smiled as she snuggled into his chest.

Unfortunately, what they didn't realise was that they weren't the only ones looking for Jack, the Sheik had found out about the con after they left and set his men to tracking Jack down to get his money back, and then get his pound of flesh. They'd already worked out Jack's patterns, that was how they'd found him after he had dinner with Sarah and Chuck, so it didn't take them long to track him down to the hotel he'd gone to after he ran from the one that Sarah knew about.

In the morning, Chuck did a run to the bakery to get the chocolate croissants that Sarah liked, she could do an extra ten minutes in her workout, he thought she needed her comfort food. Of course when he got there he found that he didn't have any cash, so he had to hit the ATM first, and finding that he had an extra $10 million in the Chuck Bartowski account was a major surprise, he quickly got the croissants and headed home in a hurry, only to find Sarah gone.

Sarah was in the workroom taking her frustrations on Fred (the training dummy, Danny was the wooden man) when her phone rang, and when she heard her father's voice she jumped onto the computer and initiated a trace on the call, she changed from anger to worry when Jack's voice was replaced by the Sheik's, who was demanding his money back. When she told him she didn't have the money he started telling her that she had a real problem, and Jack started shouting to her not to give it to him before he was pistol whipped. When she heard that Sarah was replaced by Agent Walker and she started saying "If anything happens to my father." when he cut her off in a mocking tone "What, you'll con me out of more money?", but he obviously didn't take her answer of "No, I'll kill you!" seriously "Then bring me what is mine and we won't have a problem, OK? I'll call you in an hour!" When he hung up, Sarah lost the trace on the call, so she quickly stuffed a couple of bags with what could give the appearance of $10 million in cash, grabbed a few weapons and headed out, just before Chuck got home. When he saw her Porsche missing, he rushed upstairs, and worked out what had probably happened when he saw the phone trace on the computer, especially when he brought up the security feed and saw her stuffing books into two bags, so he brought up her trackers (Porsche and personal) and confirmed that they were still travelling together, then quickly geared up himself, grabbed a laptop and set it up for a money transfer from his credit union account before running out the door. When he was in the Odyssey following Sarah, he called Casey to let him know what he was doing and what he thought Sarah was doing, after swearing at him, Casey told him that he'd be ten minutes behind him.

When Sarah got the follow up call, she headed to the parking garage where the Sheik said she should meet them, walking out onto the top level with the two bags. She knew this was going to come down to a shootout, but was banking on being good enough to get most if not all of them. The Sheik, of course, wouldn't come near her so he sent one of his men over. Just after he said that the bags were filled with books and stood up to point a pistol at her head, Chuck turned up, jumping out of the car with the laptop shouting "Don't shoot, don't shoot, I have your money right here!" the Sheik's men had them both covered, so the Sheik thought he had the situation under control and felt free to taunt them "Mr Lichtenstein, thank you for joining us, what are you going to sell me this time?" Chuck's response was "I have your money, and I can wire it to you right, now!" The Sheik looked at him "If you're lying, I will put a bullet in her head" Chuck looked at Sarah, and she watched him calm down as he became Agent Carmichael, looking back at the Sheik he just said "All I need is your account number." The Sheik looked at him and he poured on the act "Please, all we are is a couple of bad conmen who got in way too deep, all we want to do is give you your money, come take it and let us go." the Sheik looked at him smugly and stepped up to the laptop to type his account number in. At the end of the transfer, Chuck said "There, you have the money!" and the Sheik smugly replied "Pleasure doing business" before turning to his men and calling out "Now kill them!" Chuck dropped the laptop, pulling a tranq gun and a "real" pistol from the back of his belt long before it hit the ground.

The first bullet from the "real" pistol took out the sniper who was pointing a rifle at the back of Sarah's head, the first tranq dart went into the Sheik, then the rest of the rounds went into the Sheik's men, and he was joined by Sarah after the third shot he got off. Within twenty seconds, the two of them and Jack were the only people standing. Sarah went to secure the Sheik's men and make sure that they weren't a threat, then ran to Chuck where he was leaning against his Odyssey, checking him over to make sure he was OK. When she'd made sure that he wasn't shot, she turned to see what he was looking at, and realised what he'd done when she saw the sniper hanging there, missing half his head. She turned back to Chuck, looking into his eyes as she said "You saved me?" he focused on her as he said "I couldn't let him hurt you Sarah.", and she threw her arms around his neck. That was how Casey found them, up against the Odyssey with their arms around each other, he ran up to ask if Chuck was OK, and Sarah nodded her head at the sniper. Casey knew what he was going through as he'd seen what happened to him when he had to shoot people before (non fatally), so he didn't say a word, just squeezed his shoulder. Jack was whining that he was still tied up, but when Casey walked up, got right in his face and hissed at him "Shut your mouth!", he was bright enough to do so.

When Casey rechecked the Sheik and his men, it was obvious who shot who, Walker's targets were dead, but with the exception of the sniper, Chuck's were alive. When Sarah freed Jack, he looked at her and asked "You're some sort of cop, aren't you?" She glanced at him briefly before replying "Something like that." Looking back to him she asked "Why did you put the money in Chuck's account?" "I had to put the money somewhere 'cause I didn't trust the other one" (nodding at Casey) "But you trusted Chuck?" "I read people, that's the only real talent I got, one thing I know, that kid would never betray you, I made a ten million dollar bet that he loved you, turns out I was right." Casey sent Chuck home with Sarah and stayed to clean up the scene, and he sent Jack with them to let Sarah make the decision about what to do with him. On the way back, they were passing a Hertz office and Chuck made Sarah stop the car, hopping out he opened the back door and waved Jack out. Sarah looked back at him and said "Chuck, no!", but he put his hand up to her with a pleading look and she turned her head to look out the windscreen. Chuck walked Jack over to the Hertz office and asked him if he had money, Jack nodded, saying "I wanted to thank you for coming back, I gave you ten million reasons to leave." Chuck looked over at the car, saying "But one really good reason to stay." turning back to Jack "and she would have done the same for me." Jack looked at the car, too, saying "I believe she would've, lucky for me she met the right schnook." Chuck held out his hand to Jack, shaking his hand and asking him to try and avoid getting into trouble, as it would hurt Sarah, Jack nodded as he looked at the car again "I'll try, she turned out pretty good, even with a lousy father." Looking back at Chuck he asked "Take care of her?" Chuck nodded, saying "I'll do my best."

Chuck watched Jack walk into the rental office and then walked back to the car, getting in. Sarah spoke without looking at him "It was my duty as an agent of the government to bring him in." "and it was your duty as a daughter to give him a chance, so I made the choice to save you from having to choose which duty to follow." She looked at him then, whispering "thank you" with tears in her eyes. Chuck smiled at her, saying "Let's go home", she nodded, reaching across to squeeze his hand and then put the car into gear. On the way home, he sent a text to Casey to say that it appeared that Jack had disappeared, but Sarah wasn't involved, knowing that Casey would write up the reports to show that Jack had disappeared sometime in the cleanup at the site.

When they got home, they filled the others in on what happened, but Jeff and Anna disappeared straight after making sure that they were both OK. It took Chuck a few days to work out why they scuttled off the way they did, because the next time he went to the ATM the $10 million was back in his account. His first thought was that he should turn it in, but when he stopped to think about it, it would probably end up in some fat cat's slush fund, and he was pretty sure they would have ensured that the transfer back to his account was untraceable. Over the past couple of years, especially, he'd seen what it was like to be around the spy world, and how you can't trust anyone outside of your own family, so they could need that $10 million if others turned on them again (after all, there had already been one termination order put out on him). With that thought, he transferred the funds to a few safe accounts and wiped out every record of the transfers into and out of the account. At least they had some mad money now.


	10. Red

**Usual disclaimer for the land of Litigation, no rights to any characters portrayed.**

It had been an eventful few months since Jack's visit, and much of it was quite trying. Chuck had been constantly waking up from nightmares about the men he shot, and especially about the man he killed, but the worst nightmares were the ones where it was Sarah he saw laying on the ground with half of her head blown away, he had a hard time getting back to sleep after those ones. The nightmares seemed to be giving way to an escalating series of sex dreams, though, and Chuck felt rather guilty about those because it seemed so disrespectful of Sarah to be dreaming about her like that.

The thing was, the guilt that Chuck was feeling about those dreams wasn't as much as Sarah was feeling, she was torn up about the terrible nightmares he was having, she could hear enough from his mutterings in his sleep to know that it was about the men he shot rescuing her father, and more to the point, her, and she knew that they all ended one of two ways, either him looking at the man he'd killed to save her, or looking at her when he didn't manage to save her, and his grief as he wept when he thought he was looking at her dead body ripped her heart out. She'd found that he relaxed a little from the nightmares a little when she was kissing and holding him, and the more she did, the more relief he got from them. She told herself that she was doing it to stop him hurting himself with those nightmares, and in truth that was the prime driver for it, but it was also her way of expressing her feelings for him, she desperately wanted to make love with him properly, when he was awake, but there was no way that they could do that, especially after that bitch Forrest formally reported her for being involved with her asset on that Fulcrum operation where they had to work with a larger task force of agents. The General had dismissed that report with an explanation of circumstances, but it was on file, and if anything else came out, she didn't think there was any hope that she could avoid being reassigned away from Chuck, and she couldn't handle that. So she told herself she was helping him with his nightmares and tried to avoid going too far, though that was so hard when he was driving her wild with his lips, his gentle, loving hands, and the feeling of him pressing against her. Chuck thought that they both must have been having explicit dreams, the times that they woke up flushed in the morning (and though he'd like to think it was him, he didn't really want to think about who Sarah may have been fantasising about), but as long as he wasn't waking up at the sight of the man he'd killed, or even worse, Sarah laying there dead, he'd take the frustration and guilt of the sex dreams.

They'd also achieved a lot in the last few months or so though, they'd managed to finish taking down Fulcrum (other teams were involved in some operations, but it was mainly their work, and Casey got his promotion to Colonel in recognition for his contribution), Fulcrum's Intersect research had helped the NSA's Intersect project along after they'd captured it, and Ellie and Chuck had worked with their father, Laszlo and the NSA's Intersect team to develop a far more advanced, improved version of the Intersect, Chuck had loaded the latest version, and it performed far better, and with less side effects than the earlier version, it also added all sorts of physical skill sets to the existing knowledge databases. Some of the elements that had been incorporated into the Fulcrum version, but which hadn't been removed by the NSA scientists who were doing the integration of the two databases were things that Chuck definitely didn't want to know, like the enhanced interrogation methods, hundreds, if not thousands of methods to kill and maim, a vast database of the effects of given drugs and drug combinations on the human body, databases of sex acts etc. There were also other skillsets in the integrated database that were a little uncomfortable if undeniably useful, like the medical and surgical skillsets. Some didn't make much sense to him but he found quite fun, and useful, like the culinary skill sets that effectively made him into a master chef, as well as being able to play just about any instrument and the like.

One major problem with the Intersect was that they still hadn't found anyone but Chuck who could handle it, even more restricted versions than the one Chuck had destroyed the brains of every volunteer who'd tried to load them, so when Bryce Larkin tried to steal the intersect for the second time and killed himself when he blew up the facility again (due to his ego, he'd been certain that with the latest Intersect he would be able to take Chuck down and assume his rightful place on top of the heap, so he broke in, set the charges and then loaded the intersect, but as he was just twitching on the floor when the facility blew up they presumed that he'd managed to burn out his brain trying to load the Intersect, which unfortunately meant that his passing was probably easier than that of the security guards he killed with the explosion), the powers that be decided not to fund the Intersect project any further, Stephen and Laszlo kept up the updates for Chuck, but any further development of the Intersect was shelved.

Of course, whenever they removed one obstacle, like Fulcrum, it only revealed the next one, when they took down Fulcrum, the discovered that it was only a part of a wider organisation, called the Ring? So now they were hunting them instead of Fulcrum.

Things got interesting when Sarah got a call from Carina to say she was in town and wanted to catch up. When she was leaving to go clubbing with her, Chuck had to remind her again about her wedding rings (it was like a flashback to the night she went to dinner with her father, "Oh yeah" walking back to him to hand him her rings, rising on tip toe to kiss him with a "Thanks" before she smiled and headed for the lift again). In the club, Carina noted that Sarah was a little distracted so she thought she'd feel her out to get the story out of her, and her reactions were interesting. "So, why are you still here, how long could you possibly have to protect some doofus at a stereo store?" "I really don't want to talk about work." "Ah, so you're sleeping with him?" We have a very professional relationship." "Oh" "What?" "Nothing, you're just really into him, that's all." "Look, can we please not talk about Chuck?" "Oh my god, Walker." "What?" "You broke the cardinal rule of spying, didn't you?" Sarah turned away to avoid letting her see the answer, only to see Chuck at a table across the club, she quickly told Carina that she needed to go to the ladies' and headed over to him via a roundabout route. "You know you can't watch over me all the time to keep me safe, don't you?" He didn't look at her "I can try, can't I?" She put her hand on his shoulder to make him look at her. "I know what makes you wake up at night, sweating, but it didn't happen, you saved me, and I'm safe enough having drinks with Carina." He reached out to take her hand. "Every time I think of losing you like that, it terrifies me."

At that she stepped in to wrap her arms around him, but after they'd only had a short time holding each other, she heard Carina's voice behind her "How did he save you exactly?" Sarah jumped back and Chuck blurted out "Hi Carina, long time.", but she had a shit eating grin on her face as she played it up "Wow, what a nice surprise." They didn't have a chance to say any more as someone came up behind Carina then, picking her up and kissing her. Sarah didn't miss the way Carina spun the ring on her finger so that the massive rock was now on display behind the man's back as she was kissing him. Turning back to them, Carina said "I'm so glad you're both here, this was I can tell you our great news at the same time, this is my fiancé, Karl." Sarah put on the appropriate face as she said "Wow!", then Carina made the introductions, "Sarah Walker, my best friend, and Chuck, her boyfriend." Karl actually seemed excited as he said "Great to meet you guys, it really is." Sarah responded, "It is really great to meet you, you're exactly how Carina described you." "Thank you, love really has made me a better man." He stopped to kiss Carina and asked "What about you Chuck?" Chuck looked at Sarah, and just said "Definitely." Karl smiled quickly and then said "I really hate to cut this short guys, but I've booked a romantic dinner for two?" Chuck just said "Sure, yeah." Karl turned to Carina saying that he'd meet her at the ballet, kissed her several times, said it was nice to meet them and left. They turned to look at Karl as he waved, walking away, and Chuck flashed on a scar on his arm, turning to Carina he said "Carina, sorry to be the one to tell you this but Karl is not who you think he is, he's a" "An arms dealer? Yeah, my mark, what, do you think I'm an idiot? It's the cardinal rule (looking at Sarah) Spies don't fall in love, welcome to your new mission."

The next day, Carina turned up at the Fish Palace for the briefing, as instructed she asked for Sarah Carmichael, and was told to wait and Mrs Carmichael would be with her as soon as possible. Only part of the glass doors into the Piranha Security & Technology offices was clear, but that was enough for her to see Chuck touch Sarah's arm and say something to her, so she turned and fumbled, handing something to him with a kiss to the cheek before they proceeded to the door with Casey. When they stepped out of the elevator into the base, Chuck waved around and said "Welcome to the Dungeon." When the General came on screen, she launched straight into the briefing, "Agent Miller's been working undercover for the CIA, playing the girlfriend of suspected arms smuggler Karl Stromberg." Carina took over "We've learnt that ten million dollars was recently wired into Stromberg's account, we don't know what it is, but someone is willing to pay a lot of money for it, my engagement party is today at Karl's house, Sarah and Chuck will be attending as my best friend, and her boyfriend, the cover they established at the club, and Casey (slapping him on the shoulder) will play my father." Casey glared at her, saying that he'd play her brother, giving Carina the opening to make a crack about "That's a bit of a stretch, Colonel." The General cut in at that point to say "Colonel Casey, you will assume the identity of Agent Miller's Uncle." then Carina took over again, "Karl's storing the weapon in a gold case in a vault room adjacent to his bedroom. During Karl's toast , Sarah and Chuck will slip out, break in and apprehend it. He keeps the access keys in his pants, which I can easily access." Casey made the obvious response to that but was ignored. "Karl also just installed a state of the art security system in the vault room, so I hope the two of you can handle anything you find there." Sarah and Chuck shared a look, and Chuck looked nervous, but Sarah said "There won't be a problem." Carina looked at her coolly, saying "Better not be!"

After the briefing, Carina pulled Sarah aside, demanding to know what the hell was going on here, and what was with MRS Carmichael? Sarah asked her to wait and she'd explain. When they headed upstairs, Sarah asked the guys if they could handle things without her for a while, and Chuck nodded as they got off, then Sarah took Carina up to the penthouse. Carina looked around, taking in the place, not missing the nerd touches that screamed Chuck. When she opened her mouth to speak Sarah grabbed her arm and dragged her to the workroom, holding up her hand when she went to speak again as she entered the code to secure the room before turning back and saying, "Now it's safe to talk. This whole place is our cover, and yes, that cover has Chuck and I as Mr and Mrs Carmichael, the owners of Piranha Security & Technology." She looked at Carina for about thirty seconds before she went on "As for the question that you're dieing to ask me, yes, I am, but I haven't even told him that and if it got out officially I'd be disappeared so fast my head would spin, we haven't done anything about it because he knows that I'm worried and he's leaving the call on what we do up to me." "As for your question in the club before your "fiancé" crashed the party, my father turned up again recently, and he dragged us into a bad situation with Sheik Rajiv Amad. He got himself captured and I went to rescue him but I was in trouble by the time Chuck arrived, so he saved both of us, the first one he took out was the sniper who was about to blow my head off and now he has nightmares about that, about killing a man, and what would have happened if he didn't." Carina stared at her, asking how Chuck could have done that, he was an analyst! Sarah looked at her and quietly said "Not Exactly." as she took her by the arm and led her to the wall where his certificates and pictures were. Carina was confused as she looked at the certificates, but when she looked at the pictures of a very young Chuck with the other SEALs she spun to Sarah, shouting "Are you trying to tell me that Chuck is fucking Mowgli?" As her answer, Sarah tapped on the picture that showed Chuck with the one who'd talked about a competition between her and Mowgli, because Carina had been there when he was saying it. Carina just stared at her, asking "How?" Sarah looked away, telling her that she couldn't tell her any more, and she shouldn't have told her this much because if she revealed anything that had been said she'd destroy both of them, but Chuck was very special.

Carina nodded and then asked just how good Chuck was? Sarah looked at her "You know how good Casey is? (Carina nodded) Well he can't match Chuck, but the time he saved me was the first, and only, time he's killed a man, and he's been having nightmares ever since, unless I distract him." That brought the old Carina out as she grinned at her, but Sarah glared back "We haven't had sex, but getting him a bit worked up while he's asleep is the only way to break him out of his nightmares, and it's more than I can afford to do when we're awake, because if we get caught I'll be gone!" The anguish on her face made Carina remember that this was the friend who'd saved her so many times from herself, and her demons, and she stepped forward to put her arms around her as she cried. When she'd recovered a bit, Sarah asked Carina if she had what she needed to get ready for the party in her car? When Carina nodded, she said that she may as well bring the car inside and get ready here, Carina said that she was just going to get a room, but Sarah smiled and took her by the hand to lead her into the master bedroom and show her what they had in the ensuite there. Carina looked around and agreed that this was better than she'd ever find anywhere else, so they went to bring her car into the secure parking. When they came back up, they put Carina's gear in one of the other bedrooms, and checking out the ensuite, Carina commented that even that one was better than most hotels. Something occurred to her then and she asked if she could have another look in the workroom, Sarah took her in and she went straight to the pictures on the wall. Sure enough, not all the pictures or certificates were Chuck's, Sarah had actually retrieved and put up some of the (very few) pictures and certificates that she'd hung onto from her own training, missions etc. Carina stared at Sarah, to the very few people who knew her, this was a clearer sign than anything else that to her, this was her home, with Chuck, the Sarah she'd known would have never shared something this personal with anyone, so the fact that she'd put herself out there this way was mind boggling. Carina smiled at her, saying "I REALLY have to get to know this guy now, he's turned you into a different person, well I suppose he WAS the only guy to turn me down, three times no less."

Their sweet moment died there, as Sarah asked "What?" in a voice that implied bloody mayhem was about to follow. Carina was taken aback, but decided she owed her the truth. "The last time I was here, I called him over to my room on the Nerd Herd number, I was down in that sexy red lingerie that no other guys have been able to resist and was starting to remove that when he stopped me, and he wouldn't do anything, even after I dropped the bomb about Bryce being your boyfriend." The murderous look returned, stronger than before. "Look, you know how much I need to win, but I wouldn't have done that if I'd known what he actually meant to you, you mean more to me than anyone." The fire in Sarah's gaze abated a little at that. "Anyway, there were two other times I saw him that mission when you two were on the outs that invited him back to my room for a bit of fun and he shot me down then, too, there was no way that he was going to settle for anyone else, even if he didn't think he had a chance with you."

After that, Sarah took her down to show her around the office, stopping off in her office to make a mysterious call, then it was time to get ready for the party. Chuck got what he needed and headed into the workroom, leaving the main ensuite for Sarah as usual, and Carina had her shower in the other bedroom where her stuff was. The girls were in the ensuite doing their hair and makeup, and Chuck ducked in a few times to get the things he needed, but he didn't look at or talk to them when he did, Carina thought that was Chuck being shy, but Sarah was looking worried about it. Carina asked her what was up, and she said that they'd hardly talked since the club when SOMEONE made a point of laughing about the idea of spies falling in love, because only an idiot would do that. Carina tried to say that he wouldn't read anything into that and she turned on her "His mother left him when he was nine, his father left him when he was twelve, seven years ago his soon to be fiancé dumped him and jumped into bed with Bryce fucking Larkin, my ex, when he got Chuck kicked out of Stanford, on top of that I haven't been able to tell him or show him that I love him or give him any hope that I'll stay with him, because I could be ripped away from here on ten minutes notice, why WOULDN'T he believe that love is for idiots and I'll be the next one to leave him?"

Carina stared at her, then turned and walked out of the room to the living room in lingerie and heels, grabbing Chuck by the hand to drag him into the room that she was using. When she shut the door Chuck started to say angrily "How many times do I have to tell you no?" when she cut him off, saying that it wasn't about that, she struggled with the words for a sec and the started "What I said in the club about spies falling in love, I was baiting Sarah because she HAS fallen in love, with you, she hasn't told you or shown you that because of all this shit hanging over her head, because she's afraid of being taken away from you, I can't imagine falling in love, but I can assure you Sarah already has….. Look, come with me" She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the workroom, impatiently waving at him to open it up. Pulling him over to the certificates and pictures, she tapped on Sarah's records, and the pictures that she'd put up, and asked him how many people he thought had seen these, other than when they were on the wall here? He shrugged, saying "Her friends?" She looked him in the eye "No-one! Remember what I told you last time about spies not wanting anyone to know about them? These are the most real information that exists about Sarah Walker outside of her official company record, I knew about half of these only because I was there, Sarah has never willingly told anyone about any of this before, let alone putting it up on display, she trusts you more than she's ever trusted anyone before, and that's because she loves you! Now, will you stop giving her the cold shoulder and punishing her?" He looked at her, stunned, his first inclination was to tell her that he wasn't giving Sarah the cold shoulder but he realised that, to a degree at least, he was, so he turned and walked out the door.

When he walked into the ensuite, Sarah was trying not to cry as she put on her makeup. Walking up behind her he put his arms around her and whispered into her hair "I'm sorry, It's going to be alright, I love you." She turned in his arms and looked at him, saying "You can't promise that Chuck." "I can promise that I'll move heaven and earth to do it, and that the American government won't get a thing out of me if we aren't together." "No, they'll kill you!" "Luckily I think they need me too much to do that." Leaning in he whispered in her ear, "and we have ten million in untraceable funds if you think we need to run." She looked at him, wide eyed "From?", he nodded "How?" "AJ." Her eyes were shining with unshed tears as she wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered in his ear "I love you!", then with an effort she pushed him back, telling him he was going to make her late, but pulled him back in for a quick kiss before giving him a final nudge for the door. When he came out, Carina looked a question at him and he nodded with a smile, kissing her on the cheek on his way back to the living room.

Things went fairly well at the engagement party, Chuck and Sarah were the picture of a loving couple unable to keep their eyes or lips off each other, Carina handed off the access card to Sarah and went up to stand with Karl for his speech. As soon as attention was elsewhere, they headed upstairs as quickly as they could without being noticed. Sarah notified Carina when they'd reached the vault, and then used the access card to open the vault (what they didn't find out until later was that Karl's "speech" actually went for less than a minute, so Carina had to drag Casey up to keep it going long enough to cover for them). When Chuck saw the lasers (roving, not fixed beams), his first thought was "Oh, shit!" looking at the case on the other side of the lasers, he couldn't help channelling Mal in Serenity "Hard to get to, that's a fact!" Sarah looked at him and said "You can do this!", which got a smile as he said "I appreciate your faith in me, even if it may be displaced." while talking off his suit jacket and handing it to her. He took about thirty seconds memorising the laser movement patterns and then got moving, using a mixture of gymnastics, dance and parkour moves to avoid the beams on his way to the other end. When he got there, he examined the case carefully before opening it and extracting the "weapon" (it didn't look like any weapon he'd ever seen), making sure that there was nothing else in the case before he resealed it and positioned it exactly as it had been. Then he slid the "weapon" back across the floor to the door of the vault, and after watching the beam movements again to get the pattern, got himself out of the vault, too. After they'd resealed the vault, he slipped the "weapon" under his shirt and put his jacket back on, and they slipped back downstairs to the front door. Sarah made a show of asking Chuck to wait there and rushing over to Carina to tell her that they were sorry, but Chuck got called in for a work emergency and they had to rush back "Damn computers, they never sleep so they play up at all hours.", passing back the access card when she grabbed Carina's hand to apologise for leaving. They headed straight back to the Fish Palace and Carina slipped away to where Casey was waiting for her about an hour later.

The debriefing was quick, (they got what they were after and Stromberg didn't know it was gone yet, the mission was a success), and then the General went on to other matters, asking Carina to stay, she started. "Agent Walker, with regard to your request (and your threat, she added to Chuck) earlier, we have come up with a solution which we hope will be satisfactory, the paperwork that Colonel Casey will bring over is for your resignation from the CIA, and forms for your instatement with the NSA, exclusively attached to the Intersect Team, so you can't be re-assigned elsewhere arbitrarily. As far as getting around the potential dangers of a 49B situation, we have considered two options, which don't have to be exclusive of each other, hopefully one or both will be acceptable to you. First, you go to Las Vegas to get married before we process your paperwork to instate you to the NSA, so you will join the NSA as the wife of Charles Bartowski. We can use that as an argument to prevent you being transferred away from your husband, the other option is that Chuck becomes an agent of the NSA, which removes the asset/handler issue, we can use the fact that he has already been proven in combat on a formal mission to waive the red test requirement, this option, of course, would take longer."

"Are any of these options or proposals acceptable to you, and if so, how do you choose to proceed?" Sarah asked to have a word in private with Chuck and the General nodded, so they went off to one of the containment areas in the back. When they came back, hand in hand, everyone there knew at least one of the options that they'd chosen, and they weren't that surprised when the answer was "all of the above". Sarah asked Casey and Carina if they'd come to Vegas that night to be their witnesses (with Ellie, and possibly the others), and of course they agreed, Chuck called upstairs to ask who was coming to Vegas for a wedding, and the answer of course was everyone. The General adjusted the orders for the G5 that was waiting to take Carina and the weapon back to Langley to deliver it to the CIA to do a round trip to Vegas first, but before they did that there was another item to be raised, she turned to Carina and pointed out that the changes with Agent Walker's status would make her less suitable for certain types of missions, and the workload with this team had made the addition of another experienced agent a priority for some time, but finding a suitable agent who was trusted by the relevant parties had proven impossible in the past. She told Carina that one part of Sarah's requests earlier was to consider inviting her to join all aspects of their team. She did advise her that all personnel in the team were also attached to the DIA in a different capacity, and the agencies that their "public" roles were with were unaware of that in any official capacity, so the question on the table was, "Are you prepared to be reassigned to this team on a semi-permanent basis, and adopt additional roles with the DIA in a clandestine capacity?" Carina looked at Sarah, Chuck and Casey before looking back to the screen to say, "Yes General." The General nodded, thanking her and waving to Casey to give her the paperwork that applied to her, so Sarah signed all her paperwork (confirming that this was the version that said she was married to Charles Bartowski), Chuck signed his (checking his marital status as well) and Carina signed her's, when they were done, the General had one more point to address, turning to Chuck she said that he'd been demanding answers about the Carmichaels from the start, she pointed out that part of it was that a professional married couple with strong qualifications made the business look better, but a bigger part was that she'd set it up in hopes that this (indicating the wedding they were about to have) wouldn't be too far down the track, so it just legitimised their cover life. Chuck and Sarah smiled (well, Chuck grinned), and Chuck said "Thanks Auntie D", which of course got a "WHAT?" from Carina, as they had to get going, Sarah said "We'll tell you in the car, short answer (pointing to the screen), Godmother." With that they stuffed the "weapon" and all the completed paperwork into two secure briefcases (one for Langley and one for D.C.) and rushed upstairs to pile into the cars, at least the four of them were already dressed up for the party. The General lodged another amendment to the orders for the G5, for it to take Carina to D.C. after Langley, and then back to L.A.

They got to the airport to find the G5 waiting and ran on board, waiting until they were in the air to lock the briefcases in the safe. When they got to Las Vegas, there were cars waiting to take them to the chapel where the marriage certificate and paperwork were waiting, so they were only there for an hour, the certificate etc were added to Sarah's and Chuck's paperwork and the briefcase put away in the safe again. When they got back to L.A. they said goodbye to Carina for a few days and headed home. While they were on the plane, it was agreed that Carina would move into Anna's apartment (or rather, she'd take over the master bedroom in Anna's apartment).

When they settled into bed that night, Sarah looked at Chuck and asked if this had really happened? Six hours ago she'd been terrified that she was going to be taken away from him at any moment at the whim of some malicious bastard in the CIA, now she was married (in real life as well as the cover), she'd moved from the CIA to a safer role in the NSA, and she was in bed with her husband, what was happening? Chuck grinned at her, saying that he wasn't complaining, she smiled back, saying "Me neither." One thing that they didn't have, though, was the energy to do anything but sleep, so they just cuddled up and drifted off.


	11. Shaw

**This should be a no brainer, but in case anyone's unsure, I'll tell you up front that nothing I write about the useless he-skank will be positive.**

 **Usual disclaimer, no rights to any characters portrayed etc.**

Carina was back in a little over twenty four hours with her new DIA ID, and Sarah and Chuck's NSA IDs as well (Auntie D had had some serious talks with the parties who had to make the call and walked through the last nearly three years' mission reports with them and it was agreed that Chuck's skills, field experience, performance and achievements greatly exceeded that of most "qualified" agents with rather longer tenures, so his induction was handled on the basis that they were just adjusting the formal status of an existing accomplished agent, much like Sarah's was when she came over from the CIA), Carina did take the time while she was in D.C. to pick up a few boxes of her personal effects from secure storage, which showed that she intended to put down some roots with the team.

The timing on getting their NSA IDs was quite fortuitous, because a week later they were saddled with a CIA Ring "expert" by a dodgy oversight committee, Special Agent Daniel Shaw, Shaw strutted in with the attitude that he was in charge, because he was important and he was a "special agent", but he was met by Special Agent Sarah Walker (it was decided that there was more value in her keeping her famous identity, and keeping their marriage under wraps), Special Agent Charles Bartowski and Colonel John Casey (at the same level) of the NSA. He came in expecting to lord it over CIA Agent Sarah Walker (who he was looking forward to making do his every bidding), a civilian asset, and an old NSA agent who'd would never amount to much, instead he walked into a scenario where they were all NSA Special Agents with rather higher clearance levels and pull than he had, and who made it quite clear that they were the lead agents for this operation and that they would allow nothing to jeopardise it. Furthermore, they told him in no uncertain terms that his role was to provide Ring intel and follow orders. Special Agent Shaw wasn't at all happy about that.

The General had been dubious about Shaw when he was first forced on them by the oversight committee, and their doubts escalated when the team investigated him and found gaping holes in his records, with nothing to support his rise to the level that he'd attained. When he got there, the immediate feel the team got from him was that, not only was he an arrogant, sleazy, slimy bastard who thought he was god's gift to women, he couldn't be trusted at all.

Shaw's expectations continued to come crashing down as he was told the parameters under which he would operate, because everything above ground was part of the Piranha Security & Technology cover and the majority of their operation was "civilian" employees, he was not allowed any access at all as that would jeopardise the cover that they maintained, therefore his only access to the dungeon was via one of the "back doors", a tunnel to a parking station a block away. What he wasn't told of course was that every access, every move, every keystroke that he made was recorded and they received alerts that had be manually approved by one of them whenever he tried to access the Dungeon (or the tunnel), so they had time for the others to vacate the Dungeon if they were down there for any reason (they fluctuated the delays on access and explained it away as being due to the fact that the accesses were controlled by a central authentication system, so it sometimes took a while to process the authorisation). He also wasn't told about the other security measures in "his" access tunnel, like the several blast doors along the tunnel that could be used to seal off sections, and enough scanning and monitoring equipment in there to record everything that went through so if he tried to bring anyone else in, or bring in or take out anything he wasn't supposed to, he'd (or they'd) be isolated in there and knocked out with gas until they'd secured him. So Shaw came in expecting to be king of the castle, only to find that the three original team members were running the show, and that he was not only the only one not living on the premises, he had no access to anything above ground, so he had to park his beloved Tesla in a parking station a block away and wait until there was no-one else near the lift to get down to the long access tunnel that he had to use to get in (just for fun, they also had half the lights "out" in the tunnel half the time), this wasn't panning out the way he expected at all.

Of course, Shaw was cut from the same cloth as Bryce Larkin, and was sure that he could make any woman give in to him, so the information that Walker was obviously involved with Bartowski didn't phase him, the fact that Carina Miller was there, too, was an added bonus, but he was well aware of her reputation, she'd be easy, so he'd save the fun with her until after he'd cracked Walker. With an ego like Shaw's, all the avoidance and irritation that Sarah was putting in his way when he tried to charm her was passed off as her trying to cover up in front of the others, so he kept trying to get her alone to work on her, but whenever briefings or planning sessions were done she tended to take off with one of the others to handle things for her cover job. He thought he saw an in when he watched her working out or sparring with Carina or Chuck, but when he suggested that they should work out together she just asked why? She already had workout and sparring buddies. When he went into the women's locker room to "talk" to her after a session with Carina (who he thought had left), he ended up with a seriously bruised ego (and testicles) when Carina stepped out of the shower and caught him in there. After that, the door was kept locked at all times, though he noted that he was the only one that didn't have access because Bartowski and Casey went in sometimes when the girls called for them.

Shaw thought he saw his chance when Sarah was working on some mission plans and everyone else seemed to have gone back upstairs (they still had the same mission load, and that was just hampered by Shaw hanging around getting in the way most of the time, so they had to put more time in). Shaw walked up behind Sarah and started massaging her shoulders (ignoring the way that she stiffened when he did) as he went into his spiel "Sarah, I think we got off on the wrong foot, we may have different ways of doing things, but I want to work with you to make it work, why don't we have dinner together to give ourselves a chance to get to know each other better?" Sarah shrugged his hands off and stood up to get a bit of distance between them. "Are you crazy? My cover is a married woman! Having anyone who knows me, or even knows who I am, see me having dinner with you would start people talking and jeopardise my cover!" "Well I'm sure we could find a quiet, out of the way place where no-one would see us." "What part of no don't you understand? We've worked too hard to make this cover solid and get acceptance for who we are to risk it all for one stupid dinner, it's not going to happen!" "If you're that worried about being seen, we can go back to my room and get room service." He added with a suggestive look "After all we need to be able to work closely together for this operation to succeed."

By this stage, Sarah wanted nothing more than to pull out her pistol and put a bullet between his beady eyes, but she was trying hard to control herself. "Agent Shaw" "Special Agent Shaw", he automatically corrected. "Shaw, I am not going to have dinner with you, and I'm certainly not going back to your room for that or anything else, we have no need to work together any closer than we already have, because I have my partners that I am comfortable working with for any missions that we may encounter. With regard to the "working closely together" that you were implying, if I have any missions where that's required, I'll be doing it with Chuck, not you." "Sarah, I don't know why you're being like this, I understood that you were very easy to work with." (emphasising the "easy"). Sarah's urge to put a bullet between his eyes, or in some other body part, intensified as she glared at him. "We're not friends Shaw, you can address me as Agent Walker, or rather Special Agent Walker as you appear to be picky about titles, do not address me in a familiar manner again. As for your comment, I presume that you're talking about the rumours floating around about me that were started by arseholes like that scumbag that I put in hospital when he tried to rape me." "It was hardly rape" "Were you there? I was and I can assure you that I was NOT a willing participant!" "Come on, he told me how you put on a show when your partner turned up." Sarah's hand crept towards her pistol, but she controlled herself. "It figures that you'd know someone like him, there too many of your type in the CIA, that's why I agreed when the Director of the NSA made me the offer to move to the NSA after I was dragged over the coals by the CIA for refusing to let some bastard force me to screw him, and for your information, I'd already broken that prick's arm before Chuck got there." "Look, Sarah" In the blink of an eye, he was looking into the muzzle of Sarah's pistol. "What did I just tell you?" "I don't know why you're being so antagonistic towards me and the agency that put you where you are, I'm trying to work with you here and you're pulling a gun on a fellow agent, I'm beginning to think you may need some time away for rehabilitation, you're too close to the edge." Sarah's hand was shaking from the strain of stopping herself pull the trigger, and his next words "And as far as claiming that the "rumours" were all started by ones that you turned down, we heard enough from Bryce Larkin and your other partners to know how much you like it" would have pushed her over the edge if Chuck's hand didn't wrap over her's to push the pistol down at that moment.

Chuck looked at Shaw and said "Leave" Shaw drew himself up and started to say that he couldn't order him to do anything when a bullet nicked the tip of his ear, the pistol in Chuck's hand was rock steady as it remained pointed at Shaw's face and when he repeated "Leave", this time Shaw complied. He stopped to look back at the couple before he exited the Dungeon, he was going to get them for this. When he thought about a piece of intel he'd just received, his face creased in a gloating smile, he'd almost certainly get rid of Bartowski, and that would leave Walker open for retribution, and he could have fun doing it, yes, this would work, he just had to massage the intel to ensure that Bartowski was on the plane, alone, before he "discovered" that the target was actually on the same plane as he was. He grinned as he headed down the tunnel, but that changed to a grimace as he swore and tried to stop his ear bleeding from that lucky shot of Bartowski's.

As soon as Shaw left, Chuck sat Sarah on the table so he could look her in the eye and asked whether she was going to be OK? (he wasn't stupid enough to ask if she WAS OK). She nodded tentatively but whispered "Hold me.", so he wrapped his arms around her and whispered "I love you" into her hair. They were still that way, holding each other close and whispering to each other, when Casey and Carina ran out of the elevator five minutes later. Their eyes showed that all four of them desperately wanted to kill Daniel Shaw, as did the General's when they brought her into it via video conference. They spent the next forty five minutes or so discussing what Shaw had just done, as well as the lack of value his intel had been to date, and given the way Shaw left, they were all shocked when they got alerts to say that Shaw was trying to get in. Chuck looked at Sarah and after she nodded and indicated that she could handle it, said to let him in to see how he was trying to play it now and they reluctantly put their pistols away, except for Chuck. When Shaw entered, Chuck pointed his pistol at him and told him to halt, then Casey went over and searched him, removing all his weapons and frog marching him over to the table to push him into a chair. Chuck grinned at Casey, saying "Memories, huh, Casey?" Casey looked confused until he remembered a very similar scene with Bryce Larkin and grinned too, nodding.

Shaw tried to take charge of the situation by informing the general that he would be lodging formal reports of the irrational behaviour of the personnel in this station, he was trying to build a working relationship with Walker when she pulled a gun on him and threatened to shoot him, and then Bartowski barged in and DID shoot him, and now when he came to his assigned station with important intel for a mission, Bartowski held a gun on him while Casey treated him like a criminal, this behaviour would not go unpunished! The General looked at him for about thirty seconds before asking "Are you an idiot, Shaw? After your behaviour earlier, Special Agent Walker would have gotten off on a justified shooting if she'd done what she wanted to, and Special Agent Bartowski was diffusing a volatile situation by ensuring that you removed yourself, given that you were apparently unable to understand the simple verbal instructions you were given. As you apparently don't understand how an NSA station such as this operates, I'll explain, all activity is recorded, I have reviewed the footage and have already initiated a case of sexual harassment and conduct unbecoming against you for your actions. Given your apparent inability to behave in a professional manner, the personnel of this station were quite justified in ensuring that you were not able to attack anyone present, therefore their actions to disarm you were quite appropriate." She turned to Casey then "On that note, Colonel Casey, please set the protocols to ensure that Mr Shaw cannot enter the base carrying any weapons, and secure the armoury against him." Casey managed to say "Yes ma'am" without grinning, which must have been a challenge.

With that out of the way, the General asked what the important intel he had to share was? Shaw looked nervous, but he had to go forward now, so he brought up the information about the digital key for the device that was recovered from Karl Stromberg (By the team, here? Asked the General, enjoying the way Shaw bit out "Yes ma'am"), saying that it had been located in Paris, and this would be a good mission for Agent Bartowski to build his solo mission experience on, as it should be a simple pickup. The General turned to Chuck, asking what the schedule for the team was? At this, Chuck brought up superimposed schedules for both the Intersect team, and PST, which showed that he, Sarah and Casey didn't have anything like the window needed to go to Paris, so she turned back to Shaw, saying "Agent Shaw, as you can see, my other agents can't perform this mission, you will have to take it on yourself, you should enjoy it anyway, I see that you like going to Paris." Shaw started to argue, but choked it off, saying "Yes ma'am", standing to leave, he put his hand out to Casey for his weapons, but Casey escorted him to the door, handing them to him just before he closed the door. It was obvious that just about everything he'd said was bullshit, so they brought up the surveillance feeds for the tunnel and the parking garage, watching him walk to his car, sit in the car for about ten minutes and then walk back. When he tried to access the door, a mechanical voice said "Agent Shaw, you have been identified as carrying weapons on your person, please remove all weapons and place them in the lock box to your right." At that, a lock box opened in the wall at waist height, he reached over to push it closed, only to have it re-open and the same message play again, this time he followed the instructions and the door opened once the lock box was closed.

The General was still in a video conference, and looked up to ask "What is it Agent Shaw?" "I have received an update on the intel about the digital key." The others looked at each other, knowing that this was bullshit after watching him just sitting in his car, checking his watch for ten minutes before he came back in. "Apparently the key isn't in Paris yet, it is going to Paris on a commercial flight today." "Well, get on that flight and get the key then!" "There is a complication ma'am, the key is being escorted by Hugo Panzer (Chuck flashed and just thought "SHIT!", this guy was nasty, and dangerous), and there will be an unknown number of Ring agents supporting him, so it would be too dangerous to engage them without weapons and backup." "WHAT? Your intel is obviously dangerously inadequate and inaccurate Mr Shaw! If Agent Bartowski had walked into that scenario without any warning, it would have been extremely dangerous for him!" Shaw tried to cover up by saying that the source of the intel had been accurate in the past, he didn't know why they'd failed to tell him this before now. Sarah was about to blow, this sleazy bastard had been trying to get Chuck killed! Her hand started to go for her pistol, but it was captured in Chuck's, when she looked at him, the reassurance in his eyes brought her down from DEFCON 1 and she relaxed a little, but the look she sent Shaw's way made it quite obvious that she still wanted to kill him, and looking around the table, she wasn't alone there.

Sarah laced her fingers into Chuck's as she sat back to see how Shaw was going to try and talk his way out of this. The General asked Shaw how he proposed to proceed with this operation, and he tried another play "General, our best chance of success would be if Agent Walker accompanied me, we will board the plane as a couple and have weapons supplied to us on the plane, between the two of us we would be able to subdue any Ring forces on the plane." Sarah's grip tightened enough to almost break Chuck's fingers, but he rubbed his thumb across her hand until she started to relax again by the time the General spoke. "Mr Shaw, it would appear that your English comprehension skills are sorely lacking, Agent Walker has indicated quite clearly that she is NOT willing to work with you as a partner in any capacity, and furthermore, if you had been able to read the schedules that Agent Bartowski showed us earlier, none of our lead agents have a big enough time window to allow them to participate in this mission, therefore, as you are apparently unable to complete this mission that you have provided intel the for (though I hesitate to use that term for what we've gotten from you here) without the support that we do not have available, we will have to cancel the mission, perhaps the CIA can provide resources in Paris to recover the key when it arrives there." "I'll go." Everyone looked at Carina as if she was crazy, but before anyone could say anything, she held up her hand to stop them. "I haven't been locked into the schedules for the team yet so I can manage the time window needed, but I won't be doing that." (waving at Shaw) "I will go as backup, not as a partner, we will be seated well away from each other and we will NOT interact in any way on the plane, or in the airport, so there will be nothing to connect me to him at all. Whether or not weapons are provided for Shaw, I will steer clear of anything that could identify me to anyone on the plane. I will engage only if Shaw fails, if he does I will attempt to neutralise Panzer and/or any other Ring agents that remain and recover the key. As long as we handle the backup this way, I won't be compromised if Shaw is. Everyone around the table (except Shaw, of course) was nodding, this was obviously the best plan for success, but they were worried about what might happen to her. "Are you sure about this Agent Miller? There is considerable danger for you in this." "Yes ma'am, I think that this is the best chance for success." "Very well, good luck." With that she disconnected, and it wasn't lost on anyone (except Shaw, probably) that the "good luck" was only directed at Carina. Chuck and Sarah went to Carina to talk to her about it because it was too dangerous, but she was determined to go.

As Shaw had been effectively dismissed, he left, and the moment he did Chuck called Anna down to the Dungeon, when he asked if she'd go along separately to support Carina, she agreed immediately, so they made the necessary arrangements quickly to make sure that they were at the airport in time, ready to board. There was a problem when Shaw tried to talk to Carina at the airport, but she stalked straight past him, complaining about pathetic idiots who thought that she could be interested in them. As expected, Shaw failed to take the proper precautions when he drugged Panzer, so Panzer recovered and took him down (unfortunately without killing him). Carina didn't have too much trouble convincing Panzer to try the mile high club with her, and as soon as she got him in private she took him down, making it permanent to prevent him causing any more trouble. She recovered the key and freed Shaw, but part of Panzer's backup identified her when she took out Panzer and poisoned her drink.

Chuck actually found a use for that drug and poison database in the Intersect, because using the symptoms Carina was experiencing, he managed to zoom in on the drug family for she'd been given, and from that identify the materials that should be available on the plane that could counter the effects enough to give her more time. Anna tracked down and gave her what she needed to give her extra time, then went after the one who'd poisoned her (the stewardess who'd given Shaw his weapons, for some reason they didn't work?) and worked on her until she gave up the antidote, Carina was fine after that and Anna went back to her seat so that Shaw didn't see her.

At Orly, Carina and Shaw transferred to a CIA Jet to take them straight back to L.A., but when Shaw arrogantly instructed Carina "I'll take the key for safe keeping.", the look that accompanied her reply of "Fuck off Shaw!" made it quite clear to him that it wasn't just most people on the team who wanted to see him dead, it was everyone! Back in L.A., Chuck and Sarah were there to meet the plane when it landed, rushing up to hug Carina the second she got off the plane and leading her to Chuck's Odyssey. As soon as they were in the car they took off, only to get a call on Chuck's phone thirty seconds later. Sarah answered the phone and Shaw was actually stupid enough to think that they'd forgotten him, because at his "You've left without me", Sarah's terse response of "Yes" seemed to fluster him, and he asked how he was going to get back? Sarah just said "Get a cab" and hung up. Shaw must have paid the cabbie big bucks to get back as fast as he did though, because he was only ten minutes behind them.

Shaw argued that they were wasting time, because the device was only a lock box that had belonged to an agent he had inside the ring, and that it held all the intel that the agent had when Sarah and Casey insisted on following protocols and opening the device in a hazardous materials containment chamber, but everyone was done with listening to him. When the device opened the readings were all clear, so they removed it from the containment chamber and took it to a nearby table, Shaw took out the tray of disks and handed it to Casey, then grabbed the small envelope that had been underneath it and went to walk off with it. Sarah had her pistol out in the blink of an eye and told him to hand it over. Shaw argued that it was his by right! Sarah just looked him in the eye and said "You have no rights, no that's wrong, you have the right to remain silent, if you give up that right, I'll shoot you." Casey and Carina snorted at that, but she went on "We've risked our lives to get this while you sat on your arse, I'm not going to let you remove any evidence from here!" Shaw handed over the envelope and she emptied it onto the table, when a wedding ring slid out, she looked at Shaw. "She was killed by a Ring agent five years ago, her name was Evelyn Shaw, Eve." He looked at Chuck and added "We both made the same mistake Sarah, we fell in love with spies." Chuck confirmed that the story about Eve checked out when he flashed on her name.

Sarah just looked at Shaw without lowering her weapon, thinking the same as the others were, that Shaw's statement may have been a touching if he hadn't been trying so hard to get into her pants ever since he got there! She turned to Casey and asked him to lock the disks away and met Chuck's eye, they walked out together without another word to anyone. They didn't pay attention to anything other than each other that night. Anna had asked for a couple of days in Paris, and they agreed to that quite happily, she'd saved Carina, she really deserved a reward and a couple of days in Paris should be good for that.

Unfortunately, even with the copious evidence of inappropriate behaviour and incompetence, the committee who'd insisted that Shaw be on the team refused any rational arguments to get rid of him (they were getting flashbacks to the time they were forced to use Larkin on that other mission). Because none of them trusted Shaw at all, and the girls didn't want to be anywhere near the sleazy bastard, he was only used as part of the larger missions, and Casey normally had to keep an eye on him. Because his ego couldn't handle the fact that no-one paid any attention to any of the crap he came out with, he started to do a lot of solo missions (which of course never resulted in anything of use). It was on one of these solo missions that he was captured by the Ring, and the team had to go in to save him. It was suspiciously easy to get him out (to the extent that they all laughed when Carina said "Looks like the Ring doesn't want him, either.") When Shaw got back, though, he appeared to have given up trying to win Sarah over, but the malice in his eyes when he looked at her was notable.

In the middle of this, Casey had a crisis, he was being blackmailed by the Colonel who'd had him scrubbed from consideration for the Special Operations Command in order to con him into joining a covert NSA black ops team twenty one years ago. Keller had defected to the Ring, and as they knew the sort of accesses Casey had, and Keller knew about Kathleen, the fiancé that Alex Coburn had before he was convinced to fake his own death and start again as John Casey, they decided that Casey was the perfect candidate to steal something from the CIA's secure vault for them. Keller also had another ace up his sleeve though from the research that they'd done when they were looking to "recruit" him, at the time he faked his death, Kathleen was carrying his child, but she'd never got a chance to tell him (because Keller grabbed the phone off him before she could), so Keller had two hostages he could use to force Casey to do their bidding, the fiancé he'd left behind when he started a new life, and the daughter he didn't know he had. Keller thought he had Casey over a barrel, because to the world at large Casey was still the lone wolf killer that he'd been for so long, so no-one would have suspected that he had people he could turn to at a time like this, people who had the resources and inclination to help him in this.

When Casey came back from meeting with Keller, he went straight to the Penthouse and told Chuck and Sarah, so they all went into the workroom to call the General. She confirmed that she had just received a request for a trace cell mission (to test the security of the CIA's secure storage facility), as Keller had told Casey, and when Casey advised what box number he was told to retrieve the item from she checked the contents of that box and told them that it was the samples for an experimental battlefield drug called laudenol, designed to suppress emotions. Chuck flashed on what was in the intersect for laudenol, and cross referenced that information with the drug and poisons database in the Intersect to come up with something that would do a good job of mimicking the expected effects for a short period (an hour or two). They contacted Ellie to get samples of the drug that they were going to substitute for the laudenol ASAP, and set up a watch over Kathleen and Casey's daughter in case Keller moved on them early.

The next night they did the trace cell mission, removing the laudenol from the box where it was, and substituting the "fake" laudenol into the laudenol container before storing the real laudenol in the box that the General was using for these tests. Once the word got out that the laudenol had been stolen, Casey's meet with Keller was on. Sarah hid in the SUV that Casey drove to his meeting with Keller, while Chuck and Carina went to protect Kathleen and Casey's daughter from the men that they knew that Keller would be sending for them (if he killed Casey, they'd be killed to clean up the evidence, if Casey got away they'd be taken to be used as bait to bring him in again, then killed when they did get Casey, hopefully without anything else being done to them first). When Casey had gone in to deal with Keller, Sarah slipped out to quietly deal with Keller's men (that was why she had to be the one who went with Casey, the only way to deal with them was wipe them out, because they knew that Casey would be having a fight to the death with Keller, and if it wasn't Casey who came out, Sarah would kill Keller too. Chuck would have had problems with that, whereas the team sent to take the women could be captured, maybe). Casey took out Keller and they collected all the computers, devices, data and paperwork etc that they could find there before they headed to where the others were. At the house, as soon as Keller's men saw that they had opposition, they tried to kill their targets before they could be stopped, so they all died. Well, Chuck did leave four alive, but Carina looked at him and mouthed "sorry" before she walked over to finish them off. When Casey and Sarah arrived, Casey made sure that Kathleen and his daughter were both OK, looked wistfully at his daughter (named Alex, after him) for a while, then turned and left. They left the rotating watch over them in place while they waded over every piece of information that they'd taken from Keller's cabin, trying to determine whether the information about them stayed with Keller, or he'd shared it with anyone else. After going through everything, it looked like Keller had been playing his cards close to his chest and keeping the intel about the leverage he had on Casey to himself, so that Casey was his trump card and no-one else could use him. So, given that it looked like Kathleen and Alex were safe, they gave up watching over them. Of course, Chuck and Sarah (and Carina) tried to get Casey to talk to Kathleen and Alex, but he just kept saying that it was too late.

About two weeks after Casey found out that he was a daddy, Shaw disappeared, at first they thought that he'd been taken by the Ring again, but when they were going though his things they found a smashed thumb drive. When Chuck reconstructed it to recover what was on it, they realised that they had a serious problem. The contents of the thumb drive was a video, starting with home movies of an attractive brunette woman, and then going on to the video of her being a shot in a red test, Sarah's red test, and the problem was that Chuck recognised the woman from the flash he had when Shaw said his wife's name, Evelyn Shaw had been Sarah's red test, and Daniel Shaw obviously knew that. There was little doubt why he'd disappeared now, he'd gone to ground in hope that he'd get a chance to go after Sarah, because he couldn't do anything to her in the Dungeon.

They kept looking for Shaw, but the intel that they were getting on the Ring was ramping up, so they were constantly on the move, hitting Ring locations. When they received intel that appeared to indicate that the Ring Director was at an L.A. location they went in, they breached the building, with Chuck and Sarah parachuting onto the roof to work their way down from the top, while Casey and Carina entered at the bottom to work their way up. While Chuck and Sarah were sweeping one of the executive levels, Chuck saw movement reflected in the glass front of an office, and spinning around he saw Shaw silently stalking up behind Sarah with the back of her head framed in his sights. In the space of a little over a second, Chuck put three rounds into Shaw's head, walking them across his skull from his forehead to above his ear (the one with the nick out of it, actually), Shaw stopped moving forward, and then crumpled to the floor, leaving the majority of his brain matter sprayed over the wall behind where his head had been. Sarah had spun around when Chuck fired, seeing Shaw crumpling to the floor. She stared at his corpse for a moment and then moved to Chuck, who still had his pistol rigidly extended at where Shaw had been standing, Sarah reached out to push the pistol down and take it off him, then put her arms around him, whispering "It's done, you got him, you saved me again." She pulled his face down to look at her. "We're safe now, because of you, I love you." With that she went up on tip toe to kiss him and Chuck focussed on her, pulling her into his arms. They had been standing there like that for a few minutes when they heard Casey over the radio, saying that the building was empty, there was nothing here. Chuck answered "Not quite, it was a trap to get us here for Shaw." There was silence from the other end until Sarah spoke up "We're fine, Chuck got him." They heard two profound sighs of relief over the radio and Chuck said "We're coming down."


	12. Rings

**Usual disclaimer for the Land of Litigation, no rights to any characters portrayed and all that jazz.**

The aftermath of Chuck shooting Shaw was something that they almost didn't get through, because the ones who had forced him on the team were out for blood. No matter how much evidence that they showed as to what he'd been doing, and trying to do, they kept trying to push all of that aside and go after Chuck for shooting him. In the end the General had to call on her family's political connections to get the case quashed by having those higher than the ones on the committee agree that with the evidence shown, and the footage which showed quite clearly that Shaw was intent on shooting Sarah in the back of the head, Chuck's actions were justified. While that was a relief, they had to worry about the bigger issue, what was this committee after, and who was behind them?

With the inquisition out of the way, they fell back into their usual routines, such as they were, running NSA (and CIA) missions, completing the work of their DCS unit, running PST and trying to have lives in what time they had to themselves.

Sarah was having trouble paying attention to Chuck's pitch for a major piece of work to a new International Corporate customer, it wasn't that this wasn't important, if this deal went through (and she was sure that it would), it was the type of deal that could really make a business and put it on the map, and it wasn't that Chuck's presentation wasn't interesting, the things that he (well, they) had put together were ground breaking, bleeding edge stuff, it was just that she was distracted, thinking about Chuck's OTHER talents. They'd had a few love making sessions the night before and this morning which made her wonder how she'd ever thought that sex was satisfying before Chuck, because making love with Chuck was so much more than that, he'd spend hours taking her to the brink, and beyond, and she couldn't believe what he could do with his lips, his teeth, his tongue, his fingers and his… Her delicious memories were rudely cut off by Casey angrily hissing in her ear "Stop it!" She turned slightly towards him, whispering "What? I was just.." "I KNOW what you were doing, anyone who looks at you could tell, the way you're sitting there with that stupid Chuck Face!" "What the hell do you mean by "Chuck Face"?" "The look you get when you're thinking about what he does to you whenever you two have a chance to, now concentrate, this deal is important and we can't afford to blow it!" Sarah blushed at the fact that Casey HAD known exactly what she was thinking, and blushed even more when she looked across the table and saw that two of the women and one of the older men were smiling indulgently at her, they had obviously picked up on the same thing Casey had, and apparently thought it was sweet. She smiled apologetically to them and concentrated on the matter at hand, winning this deal. Chuck's job was to sell them on the superiority of what they were offering, her job was to sell them on the fact that PST were the only ones who could deliver what they needed. When Chuck had finished his pitch, she took over, resting her hand on his shoulder briefly as she passed him and getting a smile in return. As she was presenting the case why PST could deliver the solutions they needed better than anyone else, she noted that the ones who had been smiling at her before were looking quite impressed, perhaps it was just the fact that she could talk at all, considering the way she'd looked as though she was about to collapse into a puddle of goo earlier?

After their presentations were done, they were advised that they'd be contacted about the way forward, but were told unofficially that it was almost certain that they had the contract. In view of the fact that they would almost certainly be working together, most of them retired to a lounge off the executive offices for a small "get to know you" function (they hadn't been introduced to anyone earlier, being told that it was a company policy to prevent pitches being targeted at the most senior people). When they were introduced to the couple who made up 2/3 of the ones who'd caught her out earlier, Saul and Rebecca Rosenbaum, she was initially embarrassed, and then was mortified to learn that they were the founders and primary shareholders of the corporation. Saul smiled broadly at her and said "Good come back.", which made her blush again. Chuck looked from Sarah to the couple, and back, saying "I'm obviously missing something here?" Rebecca decided to let Sarah off the hook and explained. "Your wife was a little distracted when you were making your presentation, because she was thinking about you." Sarah blushed again as she said that she hadn't been paying attention (because she knew his presentation off by heart, she added with her hand on his arm), and Casey had caught her out. She grimaced slightly when she told him that Casey had something else to have a dig at them about now, because he'd coined the expression "Chuck Face" for the way she looked when she was thinking about him, which made Chuck and the Rosenbaums laugh.

After that, Saul stepped in to explain that his comment was because of how impressed they were by the way she'd changed from a woman so obviously in love to the consummate businesswoman, clearly selling the differentiators of Piranha over the competition, between them they'd sold the room on the fact that only Piranha could deliver what they needed. He looked musingly at Sarah as he said, I expect some of that was the CIA training? Chuck put his arm around Sarah as he responded for her "It's mostly just her, my wife is an amazing woman." "She certainly is, but you're no slouch yourself, are you Charles? It was a bold move, by the way, naming the company after yourself." That stopped Chuck, because the link between him and the Piranha wasn't in any of the official or unofficial background information for Charles Carmichael. Saul leaned in slightly to add "I have connections." As Chuck was looking nervous, Sarah interjected at that point "Chuck didn't want to use the name, but we overruled him." Saul nodded as he let it go, but his expression said that he'd like to hear more on the subject. They realised then that they weren't doing a very good job of mingling, but before they left the Rosenbaums they called Casey over to introduce him to them. Rebecca raised the fact that apparently Casey had just named one of Sarah's expressions with a laugh and he snorted, adding that they'd been pretty much this way from the day they met. Chuck tried to deny it "What? no" but Sarah grinned ruefully and admitted "That's pretty much it", which got a laugh from everyone and Rebecca saying how sweet that was, and with that they left Casey talking to the Rosenbaums (reluctantly, god knows what he'd tell them about the personal lives of the Carmichaels) and went to work the room. They were formally notified within a week that PST had won the Rosenbaum International contract, and Auntie D arranged for a pool of qualified analyst resources to be allocated to take up the slack when their other duties as the Intersect Team got in the way.

It was soon after that that Ellie was contacted at the hospital by someone claiming to be working for the CIA and to be worried about Chuck and their father. She'd done a good job of playing her public role (a clueless civilian who just happened to be related to two people who were of rather more interest to certain types), and left the door open for more meetings. As soon as she told them about it, they accessed the hospital security system (with Ellie spending so much time there, Chuck had set up back doors into their systems so they could get in any time they wanted to keep an eye on her), and located the video of their meeting. Chuck flashed on the man's face, getting his Identity, Justin Sullivan, and confirming that he was CIA, but he was also Ring now. They started tracking Sullivan, pumping security and traffic cam footage through image recognition software, but unfortunately, the best way to keep tabs on him was for Ellie to keep playing him.

Ellie had a number of meetings with Sullivan, and they arranged for her to give him a "lead" on their father, she sent him to an old safe house of their father's was wasn't of use any more, but they'd set up plenty of surveillance equipment around the place and made it look as if it had been used recently before she gave him the details. It was only a matter of hours before a strike team came down on the cabin, they searched the entire area and left a small team there to wait for him when the rest departed. They used satellites and traffic cameras to track the rest of the team to their destination, and put the place under surveillance.

The hits on the searches for Sullivan led them to two locations, the first was a dormant site full of unwholesome looking lab equipment and when Chuck flashed on some of the equipment, it became pretty clear that the purpose of this site was to bring people back, like Bryce Larkin had been brought back after Casey shot him. They recorded everything in there, and went through the place with a fine tooth comb, but they didn't get any leads to any other sites out of it, so they put everything back the way they found it and left it that way, though they did add some discreet surveillance gear in case anyone used the site again.

They had another thing to worry about, no-one seemed to be able to contact the General, and none of their contacts in D.C. had any idea where she was, so the team headed for D.C. to try to find her (only leaving Jeff, Anna and Josie in the Fish Palace), which was handy, actually, because the second site that they'd tracked Sullivan to was there. When they got to D.C. they checked with all their contacts again for word of the General, but they still had nothing, so they headed to the site that Sullivan had gone to.

They entered the building via the same door he had from the metro station underneath, and split up to improve their chances of finding Sullivan before they were discovered. As soon as they got out of the access passages that they entered via, they all had the feeling that something was wrong, and none more so that Sarah, because something was very familiar about the way everything was laid out. About fifteen minutes into their search, Sarah caught up with Casey and told him about her concerns. Just after that they saw a palm scanner for access to a secure room, and before he could stop her she put her hand to the scanner, getting authorisation from the central CIA authentication system. They immediately pulled out their phones, but they were blocked (standard protocol whenever high level meetings are being carried out in the building), so they started searching for Chuck and Carina to get them out of there.

Unfortunately, at the same time, Chuck sighted, and was sighted by, Sullivan, and Sullivan took off. Chuck gave chase, trying to work out what the hell Sullivan was doing, because he wasn't heading for the exits, he was heading towards somewhere in particular, but Chuck's only priority was to stop him getting away. Chuck couldn't see Sullivan's smirk from behind him, so he was caught out when Sullivan barrelled into a large room and then whirled on him with his hands raised in an apparent attack, which made him take him down. With the threat neutralised, he looked up to see the General in front of him, and the rest of the room packed with higher brass than she was, along with more than a few pompous looking individuals that he presumed must be politicians. A rather solid, florid faced three star general was smirking at the General as he said "As you were saying, General Beckman?" At that point two guards shackled Chuck and hauled him away to a cell. Twenty minutes later the General came to his cell, dismissing the guard in the room and waiting until the door was closed before activating a jammer and talking quickly to tell him as much as she could.

She had been arbitrarily called into that session without notice early that morning, it was made up of the oversight committee that foisted Larkin and Shaw on them and what appeared to be their cronies and paid politicians, or at least half of it, anyway, because she hadn't been allowed to collect and present any evidence to refute the claims tha were being made against them, the prime targets appeared to be him and Sarah, going by what they kept dragging out, but they were all in the cross hairs, it didn't help that she'd just finished making the statement that she'd stake her reputation on his professionalism and ability when he burst in and attacked a man who appeared to be afraid of him. The mouthpiece, General Merriweather (Chuck looked at her, so she said "The one who spoke when you came in" and he nodded) seemed to be the driver in this session at least, and they were bringing the entire team in to answer questions as soon as the others get here (Chuck looked up and said "That won't take long", he obviously didn't need to expand on that with her). She couldn't stay too long, but she left with the admonishment to say as little as possible when they were called into the session, he nodded at that, but he did tell her to get his phone and take it in with her.

About half an hour later, Chuck was dragged out of his cell and taken back to the room he'd crashed into earlier. The guards looked like they wanted to beat him when he stopped dead outside the doors and held up his shackled hands, they told him to get moving but he just shook his head, saying that he wasn't going in there like this, so they could remove them or take him back to his cell, after a few minutes of this one of the guards swore and took them off, Chuck thanked him politely and moved to the door.

Inside, the other three were already seated at a table, Chuck sat beside Sarah and took her hand under the table, they shared one of their silent communications and then faced the line of antagonistic faces at the other end of the room. As Auntie D had said, Merriweather was their mouthpiece, trotting out false claims and fabricated charges in regard to Larkin, Shaw, the one they'd put into hospital and numerous other items like psychiatric evaluations on them from CIA psychiatrists that none of them had ever seen. When they started throwing around claims that Sarah refused to obey orders for missions, Auntie D requested evidence of this as Sarah reported through her and she had never refused to obey orders, they trotted out phone calls that had been made to Sarah to send her on seduction missions outside of the Intersect Team, so Auntie D pointed out that these were unlawful orders as they were outside of her chain of command. Also, as Sarah had responded, she could not perform missions of that nature without destroying the cover that had been created for the Intersect team, and cited the regulations that prohibited married women from being ordered to perform those missions of that nature. Merriweather laughed at her, saying that those regulations did not apply to a cover marriage, but Auntie D managed to push her smile down when she pointed out that she wasn't referring to the Carmichaels, she was referring to the legal marriage between Sarah Walker and Charles Bartowski before she transferred from the CIA to the NSA, waving copies of the documentation for processing that at them (including the marriage certificates), and pointing out that, as Sarah had also raised in those calls, she was part of the NSA at that point, so the CIA had no authority to order her to do anything of the sort. Merriweather was frustrated at that, so he gave up on the pile of minor cases that they'd been using to build up opinion against the whole team and jumped to the ones that they planned to use to get Chuck and Sarah into prison, the "murder" of Daniel Shaw and grievous bodily harm on the agent that Sarah had a run in with when working on the PST cover business. They went after Sarah first, and tried to toss away that explanation that she was defending herself from rape with the statement from the agent that she'd been all too willing until her partner walked in and then started she screaming rape and attacked him to cover up what she was doing, but that was what Chuck had told her to get his phone for, watching the video of her getting her clothes ripped off her and breaking the guy's arm before Chuck entered the room threw that argument out for anyone in the room who wasn't in their pocket, so that got dropped.

The "murder" charge, on the other hand, was another matter altogether, they argued that Chuck didn't challenge Shaw at all, he just went with "shoot to kill" as soon as he saw him, and claimed that there was no proof that Shaw had been aiming AT Sarah, that was just convenient interpretation, they even used the sexual harassment case put up against Shaw as motivation for Chuck to murder him (Merriweather kept throwing that word out as much as he could), they threw away the point that Shaw had the video of Sarah's red test and therefore had the motivation to go after Sarah, claiming that there was no proof that Shaw had ever seen that video. In the end, they controlled enough people in the room to get Chuck sent down, and that was obviously their first priority. They still had a card up their sleeves to get Sarah as well, though, they started trotting out a long list of charges and accusations against the various members of the team, and when Auntie D demanded to see what evidence they had for this, Merriweather smugly said that the statement of the Senior Agent In Charge overseeing the on-going investigation into their team was sufficient for the committee, and called for the agent. When the man walked in, Sarah stiffened, tensing to attack, so Chuck squeezed her hand and leant in to remind her that she couldn't protect anyone if she was in prison, so she forced herself to get under control and gave him what was almost a smile. The man was Keiran Ryker, when Chuck heard the name he flashed and saw the file on the mission in Budapest and understood at least part of what was setting her off, so he leaned over to remind her again that she couldn't help anyone from prison, and she squeezed his hand. He also leaned over to Casey and told him that he had to make sure the rest of them got out when the session was finished, he had to protect Kathleen and Alex and he was sure that Sarah had people to protect too.

Ryker made his claims (and also made sure he kept coming near the table to quietly goad Sarah that he'd be getting the kid soon and would deal with anyone who got in his way, so Sarah was crushing Chuck's hand with her grip), but the Auntie D just kept coming back with the logical argument that if there was any basis for the charges, there MUST be evidence, so where was it? This was enough for the straight ones in the room to say that there was insufficient proof to continue with any of those charges, so the other side settled for their first priority, getting their hands on Chuck. When they eventually gave up trying to get the rest of them, they sent Chuck to his cell, with the barb that when he was arraigned for sentencing, they would be pushing for the death penalty (the Ring really should get more subtle minions) and Casey dragged Sarah away as Chuck had made him promise to do. Casey convinced Sarah that they had to comply with Chuck's wishes and get back to L.A. to ensure that the ones they were trying to protect were safe (he had been visiting his daughter, Alex at the diner where she worked to try and get to know her without revealing to her who he was, and Chuck told him that Sarah was protecting someone too. Given the fact that they'd been followed for some time now, they'd almost certainly compromised the ones they cared about). Carina was staying there in D.C. to try and work with the General to save Chuck. Sarah reluctantly agreed, knowing that Chuck was right and she'd have to save her Mom and Molly, but before she went anywhere she contacted the one person that she thought could help Chuck, his father. The relationship between Chuck and Ellie and their father was still strained, yes, they'd been actively working on ways to help him correct the damage that the Intersect had done to his brain, and looked out for him, but they couldn't forget the fact that he'd abandoned them when they needed him the most. When their mother disappeared, instead of comforting and protecting them as a parent should, their father had concentrated only on the search for their mother, up until the time that he'd disappeared, too, and leaving them with nothing but two people in the intelligence community to keep an eye on them didn't work out the best for them either, Auntie D and Uncle Bry did their best for them, but that resulted in them being dragged into this world as children, which wasn't good for them (Sarah had a flashback to her father's attempts at justifying his actions by saying what an adventure her childhood had been, thinking about the parallels between her life and their's). Anyway, this was Stephen's chance to help his son, and the best chance that Chuck had, so she called Stephen and told him to save his son! Fortunately, the people they worked for recognised the fact that the most productive way to handle the pair of slightly unstable technical geniuses that they depended on for all of their technology was to give them space, so Stephen and Laszlo were left alone in their labs most of the time. That gave them the chance to drop everything else and start hunting down Chuck's exact location, so they could work out how to get him out of there, Laszlo owed Chuck for making sure that he had a decent and rewarding life after all the shit he'd been through before, so he was most definitely on board for this too. Carina was put in touch with them so that she could be the legs of the operation, and Casey and Sarah took off.

As soon as Casey and Sarah landed in L.A., Casey threw together a kit that would allow Kathleen and Alex to stay off the grid and out of sight until it was safe to recover them and stashed it at a locker at a nearby station, going to Alex's diner with the intention of giving her the key and telling her to get her mother, collect what was in the locker and get out of sight ASAP, because the ones behind the ones who'd come to her mother's house were after them again. The problem was, the Ring must have moved quickly, because when he got to Alex's diner, Justin Sullivan was there, trying to make her come with him, so Casey killed him, grabbed Alex and ran. He had to drop the cover story now because killing the man in front of her like that didn't fit into "just doing his job", so on the way to her mother's house he explained that he was her father, Alex Coburn, he hadn't known that her mother was pregnant when the government convinced him that it was his duty to his country to fake his own death and start again as John Casey, and he only found that out when they came to rescue her mother when they'd used her to try to blackmail him into stealing something from the CIA. Alex didn't want to believe any of this, but looking at this man, she was seeing all the things that her mother kept telling her that she got from her father, so she sorta had to. At Kathleen's house, Casey didn't give her a chance to argue or demand explanations, Alex ran to throw a few things in a bag for the two of them and Casey all but dragged Kathleen to the car to get them to the Fish Palace (what no-one outside of the inner circle knew was that the Fish Palace was pretty much a fortress, it could withstand and fight off attacks from a small army. The only things it couldn't handle were bunker busters, but the defence system was capable of taking them out before they hit).

While Casey was getting Alex and Kathleen, Sarah went after her mother and Molly, the little girl that she'd rescued from Kieran Ryker in Budapest as a baby. Ryker was her handler on that mission, but it was only when she'd taken out all of the opposition that she found out that she was being used to acquire Rykers' nest egg (Molly was the heiress to a wealthy family in Hungary, and by that point the baby was the only one left alive with a rightful claim to the considerable fortune that belonged to that family, so Ryker's plan was to acquire the baby, and when she was old enough to access the money, make her sign it over to him and then get rid of her). When Sarah found that out, she'd taken the baby with her and ran, and she took her to the only person she could trust to keep her safe and look after her, her mother. The problem was, even though she'd been careful, the fact that she'd been keeping an eye on her mother and Molly from a distance could have compromised them, given that she knew now that they'd been under surveillance for some time now. When she got there, she only allowed her mother time to throw things for them for a few days into a bag and got them to the Fish Palace, where they'd be safe, as fast as she could.

Once they were safely in the Fish Palace, Sarah set them all up in the penthouse while Casey got on the phone to call in just about every favour that he could, they had to get back to D.C. as fast as possible to save Chuck, so he called people at Edwards Air Force Base who owed him their lives to get things set up for an F-16D to be readied for a ferry run to Andrews AFB, with all the relevant flight plans lodged. When that was under way, they told Kathleen, Alex and Emma that they had to get back to save Sarah's husband and took off, leaving Jeff, Anna and Josie to fill in the rest. Sarah's Porsche probably set a new record getting them to Edwards, and they got into the base without too much trouble (a secure military base isn't too hard for two of the best spies there are), so they were in the air and on their way before anyone noticed anything, and they'd landed at Andrews and disappeared before it was discovered that the orders were false and the pilots who supposedly did the run were actually on leave. They stole a car outside of Andrews and got to Stephen's house via a roundabout route, and when they arrived everything else had to wait on Sarah's tearful reunion with Chuck.

When the door of Chuck's cell unlocked, Chuck was suspicious, thinking about all the "let prisoner go so he can be shot escaping" scenarios he'd seen in movies, but the message streaming across the LCD next to the door was something that only he, Ellie and his father would know, so he went with it. Stephen and Laszlo guided him out of the building, making him hide whenever he was about to cross paths with personnel in the building. Carina was waiting at the door where he left the building and they took off. As soon as it was discovered that he'd escaped, General Beckman was accused of orchestrating the jailbreak, as no-one else had the access to do it, and was arrested and thrown into a cell. Once they'd found that out, Chuck, Stephen and Laszlo hacked into the system to locate her and take over the links so that they could communicate with her securely. As soon as she was sure it was them, she filled them in on the story as quickly as she could, before anyone turned up. Luckily, Ryker's ego was as big as it ever was, and he'd come to her cell to taunt her about how they'd beaten her and what their master plan was.

It turned out the primary targets were actually Chuck and her, they may have been after Sarah to make sure she couldn't rescue Chuck or something more personal, but she wasn't key to the plan, anyway, they needed to get rid of Chuck because he was the only real threat to their success, and they needed to get her out of the way so they could replace her with Ryker. She was due to chair an international intelligence meeting the next day between all the heads of the international intelligence community, and the Ring were going to use that meeting to get rid of any key members of the intelligence community who wouldn't play ball with them and replace them with others who had been bought. The Ring Elders would be there to directly oversee the action and give the orders (they apparently wanted the satisfaction of seeing their plans come to fruition). Now that Ryker would be taking her place there, their targets didn't have a chance unless the team could stop them. She looked into the camera saying "Chuck, the stakes are higher than ever, you need to pull a rabbit out of your hat and beat these bastards!" "I'll do my best Auntie D" "I know you will sweetheart, you always do." Then she heard someone heading for her cell and they had to cut the links. After that, they got into the systems that had the information about the attendees for this meeting and went hunting for viable candidates, they knew that Sarah and Casey were coming back to help them, and that shaped what they were searching for. It didn't take too long to identify one female and one male attendee who weren't coming, but were close enough to Sarah and Chuck for them to use their identities. Chuck removed any records or indications that they weren't going, inserted travel details to get them there in time and amended the details on file so that they would have no problems with getting in, while Stephen and Laszlo ensured that Casey and Carina could get in the back way without being detected.

When Sarah had calmed down enough, they laid out the plan, Sarah and Chuck would enter the meeting as French and Russian (respectively) representatives, and Chuck would slip a phone into Ryker's pocket, they'd wire up Ryker's office to record everything that happened in there and Sarah would wait there while Chuck went to rewire the facility's A/V network. Casey and Carina would enter via a rear access point, and get ready for a fight.

Sarah and Chuck had no trouble entering the meeting, and Chuck got his part of the job done. When Ryker went on stage to get things started, Sarah called him to tell him that they were on to him and that she knew that the Ring Elders were there, pushing his buttons until he sent warnings to the Elders so that they could get away, he also sent messages to the other Ring agents to go to protect the Elders. After that, he asked where she was and she enjoyed taunting a bit more, saying that she was in his office, of course, knowing that he'd come after her. Ryker entered his office cautiously, but decided that he could afford to wait long enough to find out everything she knew before he killed her (as they'd expected). She played him like any other mark, feeding him all the right prompts and giving him the opportunity to boast about everything. When he'd given up all the intel to prove their case against him, and the Ring, she interrupted him, hitting a few keys as she asked him if he was aware that her husband was a technical genius? As she turned the screen around to face him she thanked him, because without his help they wouldn't have been able to convince everyone else of the truth, he only then realised what she'd done, what she'd made him do, and when he saw himself on the screen, he pulled his pistol to start firing madly at her. Sarah ducked down below the edge of the desk, only to pop up around the corner of his desk to put a bullet between his eyes, quickly confirming he was dead before she ran out to help the others.

When the Elders came down the rear stairs to escape, they were met by Casey and Carina, who started a fire fight with the dozen or so Ring representatives who went with them to guard them. The Elders and the rear guard turned around to escape, only to find Chuck there waiting, so they had battles going on on both fronts. By the time Sarah arrived, the fighting was over and they'd secured the Elders (along with any of their guards who were still alive), so they just hauled them back up to the meeting facility.

General Beckman was immediately released, so she sent out orders for the arrest of General Merriweather and the other obvious players in the witch hunt against Chuck and the team then headed straight to the meeting facility. As soon as she arrived she took over the operation so the team could get back to L.A. (after they'd been personally thanked by the President, an incident of this scale couldn't be covered up, and he'd insisted on hearing what happened from the people who had been involved, they were also dragged into meetings with some of the other dignitaries that they'd saved that day, they'd garnered a lot of support from around the world with what they'd done).

 **A/N: I know that I changed the location of the inquisition and the security confab from L.A. to D.C. and that was because it made no sense, all the top brass and intelligence heads from around the world deciding to go to L.A. for their important meetings? I don't think so. Also couldn't use Shaw as I'd already killed him, anyway that didn't make sense either, Danny Boy was too young and too junior to be taking over the US intelligence community. FWIW**


	13. Mama

**Usual disclaimer, no rights to any characters portrayed and the like.**

When they got back to L.A. they called for a lift and Anna came to get them in Chuck's Odyssey. When they got home to the Fish Palace, it was obvious that those waiting had a lot of questions, but they asked to at least have the time to get something to eat and have a shower before they launched into any explanations. Seeing how drawn they were, the others readily agreed, and the only stop they made before that was for Chuck to meet Emma and Molly. Emma was touched to see how, even though he looked as though he was about ready to drop, Chuck took the time to charm the little four year old and make her feel like she was a Princess, her baby had founder a keeper in this one.

When they felt up to facing the questions, Casey and Carina came up to the penthouse, while Anna took Molly downstairs to the office to keep her occupied while things that most definitely weren't suitable for little girls' ears were discussed. As they were settling in, Carina saw the looks that Kathleen was giving her and Casey and decided to get that out of the way "No, we're not a couple, we're friends and we work together, that's it. Yes, in the past Casey and I have hooked up a few times, but that was the past and we're just friends now." Kathleen and Alex looked taken aback by Carina's brutal honesty, but Casey gave her a grateful look, that wasn't a topic that he'd wanted to handle. Sarah looked at Casey and said that he should get the story of how John Casey came about out of the way, too. As he nodded, Emma began to stand, saying that this was none of her business, but Casey motioned to her to sit, saying "No, Emma, we're all family here, and family doesn't keep secrets from one another" casting a look at Chuck that said "What have you done to me?" as he did so, with that he began the story. Casey didn't look at Kathleen as he talked, not wanting to see the hurt and betrayal on her face, but if he had, he would have seen hurt, yes, but also understanding, because she knew the strong sense of honour and duty that made up the very core of her fiancé, and could understand how they'd used that to make him do their bidding, Alex Coburn could not have turned down what they proposed to him because it would have gone against everything he believed, no matter how much it tore him apart and destroyed her, he hadn't known about the baby, they'd kept that from him and made sure she couldn't tell him, so in his mind he was sacrificing their life together for his duty, but she would have been free to have a life with someone else. They could all see the tears in her eyes, but understood that they weren't because she felt that he'd abandoned her, it was because of the way that he'd been forced to do it. When he finished, she went to him to kiss him on the cheek and whisper, "It wasn't your fault Alex, they used you", before going back to sit beside their daughter, Alex took her hand as they went into the current story.

In any other context, being told that Chuck, Sarah, Casey and Carina were spies probably would have been unbelievable, but they'd already seen enough to make them accept that, but even so, the story that Sarah and Casey were assigned to protect Chuck because he was something extremely special, and Chuck had been hiding the fact that he wasn't the naive civilian that Sarah thought he was for quite a while, not to mention the incredible adventures, dangers and accomplishments (the parts they could be told about, anyway) over their time together was hard to grasp. At the end, Sarah stood and went to their room, returning with a commendation they'd been handed in D.C. for them to read, the most interesting thing about this commendation (made out for the whole team), though, was the handwritten note on the bottom, because this could never be shown in public the President had included a personal message "It's an honor to know that we have people like you protecting us, thank you. Sincerely" followed by his famous flourish, but there was another note underneath that read "NB: In case you ever need me to do anything for you, a way to get through to me will always be open.". Emma, Kathleen and Alex knew that signature well, and had no doubt that this was from the man himself. Emma was smiling proudly at her daughter and new son-in-law and Kathleen turned to Alex, saying "Your father is something else, isn't he kiddo?" Alex nodded as she looked at him with wide eyes. With that, the team desperately had to get some rest as they'd been running on the edge for the past couple of days, so they made their apologies and went to bed.

A couple of hours after they'd gone to bed, Sarah was woken by Chuck in the grip of a nightmare, Sarah sighed, knowing that this would be his lot in life whenever he was forced to kill anyone (no matter how vile they were), and she started kissing his chest, her mouth and hands roaming over his body as she tried to distract him from the torment in his mind. It wasn't long before she felt him becoming aroused, and she guided him into her as she gracefully climbed atop him, her breasts brushing his chest with her motion as she moved on him and started kissing his neck. She realised that he'd awoken as his gentle touch on her back and derrière (the places his hands automatically went to caress her whenever they were together, awake or not) lightened to a whisper, his fingers ghosting across her skin to send jolts of pleasure through her. When she arched her back at this she felt his mouth on her breasts, lips, teeth and tongue gently teasing to make the sensations intensify until they collapsed, as one, in the throes of ecstasy. Afterwards, Chuck was gently kissing her when he pulled back a little, opening her eyes she saw a contemplative look on his face, so she asked "What?" "We've done this before, haven't we? Quite often?" Sarah looked away for a moment and then back at him "Yes, not this (waving below), but the kissing, caressing, holding when you're asleep, yes." "Not that I'm complaining, but why?" "You have terrible nightmares whenever you're forced to kill, or even hurt people, and whenever we're in danger the nightmares about something happening to one of us (at his look she said "OK. Mainly me") come back, I've found that if I'm holding you and kissing you the nightmares will abate a little, enough for you to get out of their grip, so that's what I tend to do when you're having them."

Chuck rolled onto his back, not saying a word as he looked at the ceiling, but she could see that he looked angry. "Chuck, what is it?" "I'm pathetic, I think that I can make it in this world but I can't do it without you making the monsters go away!" "Chuck, no!" She rolled on top of him and made him look at her "Do you think I could stop my nightmares without you holding me? No! That was part of the reason I've tried to sleep over as much as I could ever since that first time when Bryce came back. When I'm with you I feel safe, and good, and that's the only time my nightmares go away. Chuck, I was trained and conditioned to handle this world, you were just thrown in at the deep end, and what's more your gentle soul, the thing that makes you, you abhors hurting anyone, and I love that about you, so is it any surprise that your nightmares hit you hard when you're forced to do what you do in this world?" She looked at him and could see that some of her point, at least, was getting through to him. "There's something else, as well as that, yes, part of it was to take away some of the hurt from those nightmares, but before Auntie D (it was so weird to call her that, she thought) came up with the plan for us to get married, I was terrified of being discovered and taken away from you, so kissing, cuddling and caressing you when you were asleep was the only thing that I could do to express how I truly felt about you, if we'd made love properly, we would have gotten carried away and been found out, I would have been reassigned without a chance to say goodbye or ever seeing you again, if that happened I couldn't handle it, so it was just as much for me as it was for you, can't you see that?" Chuck looked up at her with tears in his eyes and said "I'm sorry", pulling her down into his embrace and whispering "I love you" in her ear, to hear the reply of "Love you more." in his. They stayed in this embrace as they drifted off to sleep again, and this time they didn't wake for over seven hours.

When they woke, they found that Kathleen, Alex and Emma had rearranged their sleeping arrangements, Alex was sharing with her mother so that Emma and Molly could take the room she'd been using. Molly had been put to bed and Kathleen and Emma were in the kitchen, cooking a late supper for everyone (Casey and Carina hadn't woken up that much earlier either). Chuck looked at the table, set for the first time at nearly full capacity and nudged Sarah, saying "See, you said that we'd never make use of a table that seated a dozen people, but it's just enough." She laughed, saying "Alright, so you were right for once, dork." "We takes our small wins where we can get 'em" came back with a grin. Emma was looking through the cupboards and called out at that moment "Sammie honey, where do you keep the starch?" Sarah just stared at Chuck with her mouth open, looking stricken, so without looking away from her, Chuck called out "In the pantry, second shelf down on the left", and Sarah grabbed his hand to pull him to their bedroom with tears in her eyes. Emma turned to call out "Thanks" to Chuck when she found it, only to find them gone and Kathleen looking worried "What did I do?" Kathleen turned to her, saying "You called Sarah "Sammie", it didn't look like they'd talked about that before because Sarah looked upset and took Chuck to their room, presumably to talk." Now Emma looked stricken, putting her hand to her mouth as she asked "What have I done?" Kathleen put her arms around her and told her that she was sure it would be OK. In their room, Sarah was crying, and Chuck was trying to convince her that it was OK, but she shook her head, saying "No it's not, you're my husband, how could I have not told you my real name?" "Sarah Walker WAS your real name before we got married, you legally changed by dead poll, remember?" She fixed him with a look, saying "You know what I mean, my birth name, we talked about it when Carina was first here but I never gave in and actually told you, so you had to hear it from my mother, that's not right!" "It's OK, please stop getting upset about it." She shook her head "It's not OK! But I'm going to try to fix that now, Chuck, my birth name was Samantha Lisa Burdon, that's my mother's family name because my father never married her, but now I'm Sarah Lisa Bartowski and I intend that to be my name for the rest of my life!" "OK, do you feel better now?" "Yes, actually, I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to hide it from you, it just slipped my mind because it didn't seem that important any more." "Exactly, it wasn't important so there's no sense getting upset about it, OK?" "OK, I love you" "Love you too, now we better get out there to stop your mother melting down because she's probably blaming herself for this." "Oh shit, yeah!" She dragged him in for a quick kiss and then took him by the hand and they went back to the kitchen.

Sure enough, Emma was in tears "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause trouble, it just slipped out." Sarah laughed as she came around to wrap her arms around her mother, telling her that it was OK, she'd just had bit of a meltdown when she was reminded that she hadn't told Chuck her birth name, but her wonderful husband had convinced her that it wasn't a big deal, so everything was fine. Emma looked at Chuck asking "I didn't cause too much trouble?", which led to Chuck laughing as well, coming around to wrap his arms around both of them and kissing them on the head, saying that there was no reason for either of them to be upset about it. At that Emma hugged him and then shooed both of them out of the kitchen, but looked up halfway through making the gravy to ask "Sarah, how is it that Chuck knows where things are in the kitchen, but you don't?" "Because he's the cook in the family." "He does everything else and he cooks, too? How did you manage to find someone like him?" "The government sent me to get something back that was sent to him, but I fell for him the day I met him." Emma looked at her, perched at the breakfast bar with a champagne flute in one hand a strawberry in the other and saw that she was serious, if amused. "Well I'm glad that things worked out, I'll have to try this cooking of his one day." "Oh yeah, you have to experience it to believe it!" She looked at Chuck and he nodded "Can you stay another day? Chuck will make dinner tomorrow night." Emma looked up but said "No, we couldn't, we've imposed enough", so Chuck interjected, saying "We'd love to have you and Molly stay Emma, you can catch up with Sarah and I can show off in the kitchen." Looking at Kathleen, he added "You and Alex as well, if you can stay? I'm sure you both have a lot you'd like to talk to Casey about?" Both women nodded hesitantly, realising that trying to resist Chuck Bartowski was a losing battle.

Then the others came upstairs for supper, Sarah asked him if he could get a couple more bottles out, because the first one seemed to be empty "Now I wonder how that happened?" he asked with a smile, snagging the empty bottle from beside her as he swooped in for a kiss, when he ducked into the kitchen to drop the bottle in the recycling bin, Emma stopped him to have a look at the bottle "No wonder this was so nice! It's Dom Perignon!" Chuck smiled easily as he said "Yeah, it's one of the few exceptions where it's actually worth the extra money because it's so nice, you can get it a lot cheaper when you buy a few cases at a time." She looked at him dubiously and asked what "a lot cheaper" was? "Around a hundred a bottle" She looked scandalised "That's not cheap!" So he grinned at her "I didn't say cheap, I said cheaper, this is an occasion, we're getting family together for the first time in ages, it's worth celebrating." At that Sarah started to sniffle, and Chuck rushed to her side, asking her what was wrong? "It's not fair! I have my Mom here, but your mother is stuck in Russia with that bastard!" As Chuck was comforting her, Carina grabbed Casey and pulled him aside, asking him what the hell Sarah was talking about? Casey quietly told her that Chuck and Ellie's mother had been trapped in a deep cover assignment with Alexie Volkoff for over twenty years, because it wasn't safe to get her out without taking Volkoff and his entire organisation down first. Carina looked at him, struggling to believe what she was hearing but having a hard time doing it "Who is Chuck's mother?" "Mary Bartowski, she was better known as CIA Agent Frost back in the day." 'WHAT? CHUCK'S MOTHER IS FUCKING FROST?" "Keep your voice down!" But Carina was staring at Chuck, thinking that it was easier to understand how this sweet guy could be Mowgli, if he had lineage like that! Chuck met her eye over Sarah's head and nodded, confirming what she'd just asked. Turning to look into the kitchen he could see that Emma and Kathleen were standing there wide eyed and totally confused, so he quietly explained that his mother was in the business, too, and she'd been quite famous in her day, but she'd gotten stuck in a position that had been too difficult to get out of safely to date. They nodded, not understanding really but at least they had an idea of what was happening. Still looking at Chuck, Carina added in an aside to Casey "Did you know that most of Frost's records at the Farm stood for twenty years until Sarah took them?" Casey snorted "For some reason that doesn't surprise me." She did turn to look at him then when she asked him whether he knew what a big deal Mowgli was? It was his turn to look at Chuck as he nodded, saying that he'd been there, and seen how shocked they were when this sweet kid had wiped the floor with their best. Carina was starting to realise just what she was part of.

Over supper, Emma hesitantly asked Chuck why it hadn't been possible to get his mother out of the situation she was in, apologising if she was overstepping by asking. Chuck shook his head with a smile, explaining that she'd been trapped into the position she was in with an extremely powerful and nasty individual, and she couldn't get out without him coming after her family. He trailed off as he was saying that and turned to meet Ellie's gaze, because the same thing had just occurred to both of them, their mother wouldn't let herself be extracted because Volkoff had known where there they lived and worked, but the only part of that which was still true was the hospital where Ellie worked. Ellie's face was all business when she said that she could put her notice in tomorrow, and Chuck smiled. He turned back Emma and thanked her, because she'd just made them realise that the thing that was holding their mother there may no longer apply. Supper was a happier affair from that point on.

After supper, everyone pitched in to clean up, but Emma asked Chuck if she could have a word? Chuck went aside with her, and it was obvious that Emma was hesitant about what she was about to say, eventually, she looked up at him and asked "Chuck, is your mother's name Mary?" Chuck stumbled back with his gaze locked on her, fumbling for words until he responded "Why, why would you ask that?" His reaction was answer enough though, so Emma locked around to make sure that Sarah was in the kitchen before she asked whether Chuck knew about Sarah's father? "About him being a conman? Yes" "I used to work with him, doing all the planning for his scams, but when Sammie was three, one of Joe's cons went haywire, probably because he got greedy and tried to change it on the fly as he so often did, then he skipped out and left me and Sammie waiting for him in the hotel room. He didn't come back, the ones who came for us were the police. We'd been in the jail for a day or so when some men in g-man suits came in, and I got taken for questioning, but it was more of a final exam than questioning, they kept feeding me scenarios and asking how I'd plan for it and what the final result would be. That went on for hours, then they gave me a choice, I could agree to do some work for the CIA (that's who they were from), which would mean that I could go home with Sammie, but I had to go and work for them for however long the job took whenever they called for me, or I would go to prison, Sammie would go into the foster care system and I'd never see her again, they had conditions of course, I wasn't allowed to say anything to anyone about what I was doing, I wasn't allowed to ever work with Joe again and that sort of thing, but the alternative was to lose my Sammie and I couldn't take that, so I agreed to work for them.

Over the next four years or so, I'd get a call once every month or two and I'd have to go where I was told to be picked up, I'd be taken away to some place and have to stay there until the job was done, sometimes it would be days, sometimes it would be weeks, they called me an analyst. The only names I'd get from the people there was Agent Smith or Agent Jones or something like that, and I was always having to fight off advances from the men until one day a lady came along and told them to back off, telling to let everyone know that if anything happened to me she'd personally track down the one who did it and do some selective of surgery on him. They all seemed to be afraid of her because no-one bothered me after that. She told me her name was Mary, but I heard the others calling her Frost. I was friends with Mary for years, along with another friend of her's, Bry, she called him the only good man in the game. Mary and would talk about our kids (I'd talk about Sammie and she'd talk about Eleanor and her baby, Charles), and other general things, she helped me keep it together in the situation I was in. Having to work for the CIA without being allowed to tell anyone anything about it ruined my relationship with Sammie's father, especially when I refused to work with him any more, but that relationship was probably doomed from the start, I would never have stayed with him if it wasn't for Sammie. He started taking Sammie away with him on his cons while I was away working for the CIA, and their trips away kept getting longer, until one day they didn't come back. I waited a few months and then I started planning to get away, the CIA couldn't hurt me with Sammie any more because Joe had already taken her from me. I told Mary what I was going to do, and she and Bry helped me get away and cover my tracks so that the CIA couldn't find me, they also helped me set up a way to keep in touch with Sammie when Joe let her call my mother. I kept in contact with Mary via a similar system, but a couple of years after I went on the run, she just disappeared, when I didn't hear from her for ages I thought she must have died, and was distraught that I'd lost my best friend without knowing what happened to her, until tonight. I was trying to work out why the name that Carina called out was familiar, but it was only just before supper that I put all the bits together.

Chuck pulled her into a hug with tears in his eyes, then looking over at the kitchen, he said that she had to tell Sarah, she started to say that she couldn't tell her about that, but he pushed her down in the chair, suddenly a more serious and imposing man. "She needs to know that you didn't abandon her and that you had no choice in doing what you were doing, we both know that Jack, Joe as you knew him, would have spun her all sorts of stories to put all the blame on you so that she'd go along with him, she worked his cons with him until she was nearly finished high school and they arrested him to blackmail her into working for them, sound familiar? But she wasn't in a safe analyst's job, the things that she's had to see and do give her nightmares most of the time, she deserves to know why you weren't there for her. Emma was crying now, she hadn't thought about what her baby had had to do for the CIA, and now she was thinking about it, the thought horrified her. She couldn't talk, so she just nodded, Chuck helped her up and led her to the workroom, catching Sarah's eye and indicating that she needed to come with them. She stopped to snag a bottle of tequila and three glasses before she left the kitchen.

When they were in the workroom, Emma and Sarah shared their stories with each other, they shed tears over what had happened to them and they had tequila shots to settle their nerves. When Sarah and Emma were ready, they called Auntie D and Uncle Bry. When Uncle Bry came on, Emma said "Hello Bry", he stared at the screen for over a minute, then blurted out "What the hell are you doing there?", Emma smiled through her tears and looking from her to Sarah, it didn't take him long to put everything together. Bry asked "Di, do remember Mary's analyst friend who was blackmailed into working for the CIA to prevent them from taking her daughter away from her?" "Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?" "Meet Emma and Sammie" "WHAT?" "Yep, I can't wait until Mary finds out that her daughter-in-law is actually her long lost friend's daughter".

At that point Chuck cut in, saying that his mother was actually the point of the call, Emma had said something that made them realise that they could get her out now. Auntie D started to say, "But what about Volkoff coming after….." trailing off as she realised what they had. "Exactly, the only thing that still leaves us exposed is Ellie's job at the hospital, and she's said that she can put her notice in tomorrow." Auntie D and Uncle Bry were too overwhelmed to speak at first then asked what the plan was? Chuck said that he hadn't got that far yet, but wanted to let his mother know that the threat to them was over now, and that she needed to start thinking about her first steps to get away from Volkoff's immediate vicinity, he was thinking that a job out of town would be the most likely option, and they could be ready to take out anyone accompanying her and get her away once she was in a location that they could control. Bry nodded, saying that it sounded like a good outline, but pointed out that they had another resource available now. Chuck asked him what he was talking about and he answered "Your mother in law, in her day Emma was as good as you and Ellie when it came to analysing intel and coming up with the best plans, we need to get your mother out safe, so I suggest stacking the deck in our favour, assuming of course that Emma wants to help?" "Of course, I thought I'd lost Mary twenty years ago, I'll do whatever I can to help get her back."

With that, the others signed off and Sarah went to get Ellie, Chuck asked her if she was sure that she was ready to leave the hospital as soon as she could, and when she said yes, they sat down to put together the message to tell Mary that they were in the clear now, so they were getting her out as soon as she could get away from Moscow. One thing that Ellie couldn't work out was the bit about "Emma and Sammie are here", that didn't match any of the codes that she remembered, but Chuck grinned and said that it wasn't a code, it was something that their mother would remember, especially when the message was sent with a picture of them. Ellie still looked confused, so Chuck just came out and said it "Emma was an analyst friend of Mom's, but Mom only ever heard her daughter referred to as Sammie, so with the picture Mom should have no trouble getting the point." At that Ellie looked at Emma and Sarah, and then back at Chuck, asking "Is everyone we know in the game?" It was Chuck's turn to look at his wife and mother-in-law as he mused "As far as the important ones go, it seems so, yeah." Sarah and Chuck shared a bright smile before he shook himself and turned back to his sister to ask whether they had everything covered? She went over the message again and nodded, so he sent it with the picture. The clock was finally ticking on something they'd been waiting half their lives on, bringing their mother home to them.

 **A/N: Yes, I brought in a theme from my other stories again, I always thought that Sarah had to get her intelligence from somewhere other than Jack and that her mother had to have a good reason to be missing when Jack took off with their daughter, this is what works for me.**


	14. From Russia With Love

**As per Wilf's question, I probably should clear up one point, they will effectively disappear when Ellie leaves the hospital because Chuck is living and operating as Charles Carmichael now, the address of the Fish Palace isn't listed anywhere in Ellie's records and she won't be working openly as Ellie Bartowski, or in anything as public as a hospital, again after this, and Volkoff is going down anyway, just not before Mary escapes.**

 **Usual disclaimer for the Land of Litigation, no rights to any characters portrayed, yada, yada.**

After they'd sent the message to their mother, Chuck and Ellie left Sarah and Emma alone to sort things out, as a lot had come out that still needed explanation. Chuck and Ellie grabbed their alcohol of choice and headed back to the living room where everyone else was, seeing the expectant faces that were waiting for them, Chuck just said "We're going after Mom". The reaction from the women was elated, and Casey and Jeff were pleased, but slightly more reserved. Chuck looked at the team and said "No mention of Emma in any reports." they nodded, but their looks said that he'd be explaining that SOON. After they'd had a chance to relax a little, Chuck looked at the team and stood up, moving over near the glass doors to the roof garden. When they were there, he spoke "Emma was in the business, the CIA blackmailed her into working as an analyst for them by threatening that she'd never see her daughter again. After her daughter disappeared with her father, two friends in the CIA, Mary Bartowski and Bryan Mills, helped her get away and hide and she's been on the lam from the CIA for over twenty years now." The others stared at him, unable to believe what they were hearing, Sarah's mother had been in the same game as the rest of them, had been Chuck's mother's close friend and had managed to evade the CIA or over twenty years? It was unheard of. Chuck snorted, saying "Especially the way she hid in plain sight, her birth name was Emmaline Samantha Burdon, but she's been using Emma Linia for about fifteen years now" when Carina snorted as well the others looked at her "Linia is Polish for line, so she's using Emma Line as her name now?", that got a round of chuckles. Chuck looked around, serious again, as he said "No further mention of Ellie Bartowski either, we need all references to her to disappear." "Yeah, it looks like my silly choices as a teenager are coming back at me now, I'll have to live with Eleanor Van Der Graaf as my identity." she frowned at Chuck "You didn't tell me the meaning of Emma's name, or how it matched her birth name." he grinned as he shrugged "It's not my fault you don't know Polish." that got him a slug to the shoulder.

When she did that, a voice behind her said "Hey, only the wife is allowed to do that!" She looked over her shoulder at Sarah as she said "Nup, the rules specifically state that older sisters who had to raise him have the right as well." That got a laugh as Sarah came up to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek before looking around and asking "What are we discussing?" Chuck answered "I was reminding the guys not to mention Emma or Ellie Bartowski in any reports from now on, I filled them in on the basics of Emma's story and we were explaining to the linguistically challenged what Emma's name means, oh, and Ellie's realised that what she thought was a cool name when she was sixteen doesn't sit to well with her now that she's got to use it." That last got him another slug to the shoulder but Sarah didn't complain this time, she moved in to snuggle up under Chuck's arm and looked up to ask him "Can we do this?" He nodded, looking confident and saying "It got a lot simpler when we realised that the only one thing traceable about us now is Ellie's job and we can get rid of that, between us we have the skills and resources to get her out, so yeah, we can do this." With that, they called it a night, Emma, Kathleen and Alex had already gone to bed, so they all toddled off themselves.

The next morning, Chuck made the arrangements for Emma to have access to the workroom and the systems she needed to get up to speed on things under her current name (Auntie D put things in place for Emma Linia to be added to their DCS team as an analyst with the relevant clearances, using the files that Chuck had created and inserted into the system) before he went downstairs to get some work done. He and Sarah came up several times during the day when they could to sit and talk, or play with Molly, and Chuck also had to bring up the groceries for the dinner he was cooking for a dozen people that night (along with an adorable little princess carriage bed that he'd tracked down for Molly and had delivered along with some toys for her, he'd called to ask Emma to take Molly out to the garden for a while so that he could get in without her seeing and put the bed together in the room Emma and Molly were using).

As well as the Piranha and NSA work that they had to catch up on, the General had an alternate proposal that made sense to look into, Frost's disappearance would probably throw Volkoff off balance, so that should make her leaving a good trigger to launch a serious strike against Volkoff Industries. The fact that his father had been preparing for this strike for twenty years, and the team had been working on it, on and off, for the last ten years as well meant that they had access to most of the tools and resources they needed to pull off this strike. Up until now Volkoff Industries had been too ready for what they had to work, but the General could be right, Alexei Volkoff was totally infatuated with Frost, so her disappearance could be enough to make him focus on nothing but finding her (much as Chuck's father had). With any luck, that could give them the openings they needed to break through Volkoff Industries' controls.

Chuck was thinking about this as he was doing the food preparation for dinner, while most people believed he lived and breathed only computers, he in fact sorted out most things in his head first, and the food prep kept his hands busy and let his mind go where it will. He had a few interruptions as he was doing this, the biggest when Molly came running into the kitchen to grab his hand and drag him back to "their" room. She pointed at the bed and asked "Wassat?" "I think that must be your bed" "MINE?" "Well I haven't seen any other Princesses around here, have you?" "Sarah is a Princess" "Well yes, Sarah was a Princess, but she married me and she's my Queen now, so I guess that makes you the only Princess, so that must be YOUR bed." Molly's eyes and smile were so big and bright they pretty much would have lit up the room, she threw her arms around Chuck's neck where he was kneeling beside her and did a pretty good impression of an Ellie hug on his neck as she bestowed a kiss that was more like a knockout punch on his cheek and ran to check out HER bed. Emma came over from where she'd been recording this with her phone to hug Chuck and kiss him on the cheek with a whispered "Thank you" as he was kneeling there. When he turned his brilliant smile on her, overjoyed with how Molly loved her Princess bed, Emma smiled to herself, thinking "No wonder Sammie fell for Chuck, what woman could resist a man like this?".

Emma asked Chuck whether he needed a hand a few times while he was doing food prep for the pile of food he was cooking, and again when he'd started cooking, but every time he'd wave her off with a smile, saying that he had it under control, thanks. She sat back and watched him some of the time, her son-in-law certainly knew his way around the kitchen, but she could see that he was processing other things while he was working on the food. She could see Mary at times in him, but Chuck must take after his father more than her, the way he was obviously threading his plans together while he was keeping himself busy wasn't Mary. Ellie though, there was no doubt that she was Mary's daughter, in the little time that she'd known her she'd seen that determined glint in her eye that was all Mary. At that Emma thought about the certificates and pictures up on the wall in the workroom, the ones that were Sarah's gave her a frightening glimpse into the life that her baby had been pushed to live, Chuck had been right when he told her that she had no idea what Sarah had gone through, but she had an even harder time reconciling what they said about Chuck with the gentle man who'd taken such joy from making Molly happy, and who was currently bustling about the kitchen preparing a meal for the lot of them, every bit the consummate chef. She'd had no trouble accepting what Sammie (No, Sarah) had said when she came up while Emma was looking at those pictures. "He doesn't like this side of himself, he's one of the best but he has nightmares whenever he has to hurt anyone, no matter how despicable they are, as he's said, this is Charles Carmichael, not Chuck."

When Sarah finished downstairs for the day and came up, Molly grabbed her hand and dragged her in to see HER bed, explaining to her that the Princess bed was HER's 'cause Sarah was Chuck's Queen now. Sarah had tears in her eyes as she agreed with a laugh and hugged Molly, kissing her on the head, and they were still there when she stood and turned to her mother, whispering "When did he do this?" "During the day, come on, I've got something to show you." as she led her into the workroom. Sarah didn't know whether to laugh or cry as she watched the video that Emma had taken, so she did both. Emma had been ready when Molly dragged Chuck to the room so the video started before Molly asking "Wassat?", and went until just before she'd gone over to hug him. When it was done Sarah turned to look at her mother with a brilliant smile as she wiped her tears away. Emma said "I take it you weren't part of this, then?" Sarah shook her head "No, I didn't know anything about it until Molly dragged me in to show it to me." "You've got a very special man there honey" "Oh I know Mom, I really do!", and with that she headed to the kitchen, wrapping her arms around Chuck and kissing him "The bed's adorable, and so are you." "Well I wanted her to be comfortable while they're here." "Comfortable? She'll be too excited to go to sleep!" He grinned "So, Queen, huh?" "That's what you are to me!" "That sounds good to me." and dragged him down for another kiss that ended, as usual, with them whispering "I love you"s to each other.

The dinner was a complete success, Emma, Kathleen and Alex were very impressed and delighted with what Chuck could do in the kitchen. The others already knew how good he was, but they always enjoyed and appreciated a chance to sit down for one of his meals, their hectic schedules rarely gave them a chance to get together like this for "family" time, and sitting around the table, telling stories and laughing was good for all of them.

The plan that Chuck came up with while he was cooking to take down Volkoff was a four pronged attack, first (and foremost for Chuck) was to get his mother safely out of there, the second prong was to strip away all the funds and liquid assets of Volkoff Industries, which would cripple any attempt for them to rise again. Chuck had some plans around that, the most effective way to ensure that Volkoff Industries (or whatever was left of it after this) couldn't ever access their assets was to just wipe out all the assets and any record that they'd ever existed, and his idea was to make it appear that that was exactly what had happened, while in fact they'd be punting the assets around the world a few times via myriad paths and an untold number of transactions, and then running separate processes to wipe out most of the evidence of the paths of transactions once the transfers had been successfully concluded. This wasn't about personal greed, as per his thought processes when Anna and Jeff had transferred the $10 million back into his account, they knew that they couldn't trust anyone outside of their family. When he'd decided to keep that money to fund their escapes if necessary, he'd set up a dozen different entities in separate tax havens, Aave Industies, Szellem Inc, Duch Corp, Draugur International, Mamua Corp, Sharpa Industries, Iwin Inc, Fantomo Inc, Kummitus International, Geist Corp, Espiritu International, and Fatalwa Corp (it wasn't the brightest move, giving all the entities names that were derivatives of ghost (or spook) in various languages, but he'd been feeling a little frivolous and rebellious at the time, and they'd quietly ensured that the networks and systems of the organisations hosting their accounts were protected as well as they could be by getting PST engaged to overhaul their security). The initial $10 million was spread around these so that none had over a million, and over the time since then they had collected some of the ill gotten gains from other organisations that they took down (usually the funds that no-one else had identified), so that they now had well over $300 million in a variety of accounts across the twelve entities. The message that they had to be ready to look after themselves had been driven home yet again just in the past week or two with the concerted attempt to remove him, Sarah and the General to facilitate the Ring's plans, and even in the "legitimate" agencies, they knew they couldn't trust anyone else.

The "family" was up around twenty people now, and for that many people to effectively disappear and stay ahead of all those following, they really needed considerable funds. So, in the situation where they had to disappear the assets of Volkoff Industries, what better way to do that than to transfer them invisibly into their own accounts? They'd shunt them around the world a few times in multiple hops, back and forth between one country and another, using millions of transactions to make it all but impossible to follow, and then follow up and remove all record of the paths of transactions other than the initial transfers out of the Volkoff accounts, and the final transfers into the thousands of accounts that they'd set up in the offshore tax havens under the umbrellas of their entities. Chuck, Anna and Jeff (with assistance from Stephen and Laszlo) were working flat out to build the botnet engines which would be initiating the flood of transfers to punt the money around the world a few times before it finally ended up in their accounts, along with the separate cleaner engines that had to infiltrate banking systems around the world to wipe out the evidence of their transactions. It would have actually been easier to steal the money, but they didn't want to do that, they wanted to take all of Volkoff's money without anyone being able to track where it went, or knowing whether it existed, though they did expand their plans when they discovered that other criminal organisations who would be likely to try and step in to fill the void left by Volkoff Industries when they were gone used the same banking facilities as Volkoff, so they included their accounts in the plans to clean out Volkoff.

The third prong was to use derivatives of the viruses and worms that they had been creating for well over a decade (and others) to wipe out all of Volkoff's computer systems and records, and the fourth prong was to destroy (blow up or whatever) all of Volkoff's data centres, development facilities, factories and stockpiles or shipments of munitions, so that Volkoff Industries had no hope of coming back. They had up to four weeks to put this together, because Ellie had had to give a month's notice at the hospital, she did have leave owed to her so she could get out sooner if they were ready early, or their mother's situation became more dangerous, but it would be better to make an orderly departure and leave less reason for people to be thinking about how she left. While they were working on the plans and mechanisms to take Volkoff Industries apart, the General was getting the President's support for enough NSA, SAD, SEAL, Ranger, Special Forces, Marine Recon etc strike teams to simultaneously hit all the development facilities, factories, and weapons stockpiles and shipments etc.

With the overall plan in play, they had to allocate functions to the people on the team. Chuck was directing, driving and facilitating the electronic attacks that day, with Anna, Jeff, Stephen and Laszlo assisting him. Sarah insisted on leading the team that was retrieving Mary and overseeing operations in Moscow, and she had to ensure that no-one could recognise Mary (or her) when they went back to Moscow, as Mary would be feeding her the intel as they went on what to hit, and where, as long with how to get into the various security systems. That left Casey, Carina, Mei-Ling and Bry to run the physical operations in the other major centres. The five were each overseeing the activities against the primary centres of operation for Volkoff Industries, directing the various strike teams in their area and interjecting where necessary They had Ellie and Emma to analyse whatever intel came in and provide direction for that side of the operation as Chuck was tied up running the cyber side.

They did have one big time management conflict while they were trying to put the plan together, the Rosenbaum International contract, they'd just won the contract and it was a total game changer for Piranha, so they wouldn't afford to drop the ball on this. Even with the team of analysts that Auntie D had assigned to take up the slack, Chuck, Anna and Jeff still had to put work in on the technical side and Sarah, Casey and Carina had to keep on top of the non-technical issues. They were still managing to juggle everything successfully, but their workload was through the roof.

Even though their primary focus was on the Mom/Volkoff operation, they still had missions to do in L.A. and one of those was a red carpet event in Hollywood. Chuck and Sarah were sauntering up the red carpet when something caught his eye, or rather two somethings, and he started swearing in Basque (the others had laughed at him when he proposed adopting the idea he'd picked up from reading Shibumi, that idea being that Basque was a good language to have their mission discussions in, because it was little known and therefore you could talk more freely when you used it, but when they'd actually thought about it, first Sarah and then the rest conceded that there might be something to the idea, and they all picked it up, enough for to use it for conversations on missions at least) Sarah looked a question at him and he answered her in Basque " _Look honey, it's our two favourite people,_ _Lester and Morgan_ _" "Shit, what are they doing here? Do you think there's any chance that they won't recognise us?"_ Chuck just looked at her and she realised how stupid that question was, they'd never miss Chuck and they'd spent every second they could leering at her and cataloguing everything about her, as well as trying to look inside her clothes (either down her top or up her skirt), of course they'll recognise us. _"Can we at least shoot them?" "Sure, with the tranq gun if they make a scene."_ At that moment Morgan started calling out "Chuck, hey Chuck, over here buddy." _"Well, it looks like you get your wish sweetie, how about we turn_ _and pose_ _for these nice paparazzi and you can get a few shots in?"_

Sarah slipped her hand under his jacket and across his back while they apparently turned to comply with the paparazzi's requests, but Chuck cut in with _"Not that one, the other one" "You never had to put up with those sleazy little bastards leering at you!" "I know, and I'm sorry, I'll make it up to you, I promise,_ _I love you._ _" "OK, a little more, a little more, stop,_ _now_ _get down here and give me a kiss to cover me as I line up" "_ _Done, now can we get out of here please?"_ They turned with a wave and continued on their way into the event while Chuck called to Casey _"Casey, clean up on aisle_ _two_ _, we seem to have a rodent infestation, actually just collect the twilight darts and slosh some booze on them,_ _with any luck_ _they'll get arrested for public drunkenness."_ They were inside the event when Casey came over the radio _"Shit Walker! what did you do?"_ Chuck looked at her, alarmed, but she just smiled at him serenely. _"These little turds are alive, you should know that when you're dealing with_ _maggot_ _s_ _like this you shoot to kill!" "The Special Agent In Charge wouldn't let me." "Should have known, Chuck you've got to let that go sometimes." "Baby steps Casey, baby steps."_ Chuck leant down to kiss her and apologise. _"I'm sorry,_ _when he first spoke I assumed the worst." "Believe me I was tempted, whenever I remember those two leering at me,_ _making their "clever" comments to me_ _and trying to touch me I want to go postal, but I didn't for you." "I know, thank you." "So, were you taunting Casey, or me, with the SAIC thing?" "Mainly Casey, you ARE the leader of our team, and anyway, I run our company, so you_ _deserve_ _your_ _time in the spotlight_ _."_ he grinned and said "Sounds fair, I love you." as he came in for another kiss. Sarah's comment made Chuck remember just how badly those two had behaved towards Sarah, and other women, and how many times they'd blown, or nearly blown, their cover on missions with disastrous results, like when he'd been with La Ciadad, when he was trying to get intel from Jill, his ex, when Sarah was on the boat with Lon Kirk (he saw red when he thought of that one, partly because what could have happened to Sarah, both of them, if Casey hadn't managed to knock Morgan out before Kirk noticed anything, but also for the way that he'd been going on and on in great (fabricated) detail afterwards about how this guy was all over Sarah on a boat, or someone who looked like Sarah because he wasn't really looking at her face, as he'd added at the very end) so he called Casey again _"Casey, have they been picked up yet?" "No" "Are you able to get access to set them up so they'll get picked up on public indecency_ _and devian_ _cy_ _charges and put on movement restrictions that will keep them the hell away from us?" "I should be able to do that" "Then do it." "Roger that"_ Sarah looked up at him with a question in her eyes. _"I remembered what you had to put up with from those bastards, so I thought I'd_ _take_ _the opportunity to_ _get something done about it,_ _once they're picked up as sexual deviants (which they are) their movements will be restricted and they won't get in our way_ _any more_ _, but mainly I wanted you to be free of them."_ Sarah's face broke into an adoring smile as she said "I love you Chuck, thank you, and the women of L.A. would thank you as well if they knew", with that she reached up to pull his face down to her's, they knew that their moment was being captured by god knows how many cameras, but just then they didn't care.

Afterwards, as they were circulating, he thought about his promotion to Special Agent In Charge of both the NSA Intersect team, and the DCS team, it was a new thing and he was still trying to get his head around it, it was about a week after they broke the back of the Ring by taking out nearly all of their key people (there was still a hell of a lot of clean up going on, and that would take some time, but other parts of the NSA/CIA were doing much of the leg work there. The General still had people interrogating the ones that their team had captured down at gitmo and as they extracted each piece of intel, it was acted upon straight away). They'd all gotten a hell of a shock when the General walked into the PST office unannounced (none more so than Josie because it was the first time she'd ever been in a secure enough work environment that her mother could afford to walk straight up to her and hug her the way she did), and she walked into Chuck's office with Sarah at her heels and Casey and Carina not far behind. The General wasn't so lapsed a spy that she didn't realise how dangerous this situation would be for her if her intentions for Chuck weren't good, neither she or her daughter were anything like a match for any of them, or Anna Wu for that matter, but she played it up anyway, keeping her face stern as she spoke. "Mr Bartowski, hand over your credentials please." Chuck just looked at her for about twenty seconds. "Mr Bartowski, I'm waiting!" At that he opened the secure drawer on his left, extracted the NSA and DIA credentials and handed them over to the General. She finally broke down and smiled as she handed him his replacement credentials, saying "Congratulations Chuck", coming around the desk to take advantage of the fact that he was sitting down to hug him, he was so damn big now, a hell of a lot bigger than he was when she held him the day that he was born and she didn't get a chance like this very often. After staring at the new credentials for a minute, Chuck looked up at Sarah, holding them out to her, when she looked at them she gave a rather Ellie like squeal as she ran around the desk to hug and kiss him. Casey picked them up off the desk where Sarah had dropped them to look at them, smiling and saying "Congratulations Chuck" as he handed them to Carina, who broke into a smile and said "Good one Chuckie" when she saw them. The others all said that this only formalised what he'd been doing already, running the team, but he saw it as an undeserved accolade, and Sarah was still having a go at him whenever he'd mention that.

When Ellie finished up at the hospital and promptly disappeared, Chuck's plan was put into action, Mary left Moscow to do a job and her team was ambushed, so all Volkoff knew was that she'd been taken and her team wiped out. It only took a couple of days for him to make finding his beloved Frost the sole priority of all of his minons, and that was when they put the rest of the plan into action, the transfers and the system destruction were kicked off at the same time, to further disorganise Volkoff's people (Volkoff screaming at them to find Frost no matter what and shooting anyone who wasn't moving fast enough to suit him, their money disappearing from their banks, their computer systems crashing right, left and centre all at the same time? Together that tended to put Volkoff's minions off their game quite a bit) Once all that had happened to destabilise them, the strike teams moved in, there was still some isolated resistance, but in general when they were faced with the determined incursions of the elite military units, they just gave up. Anyone important enough to have useful intel was taken and shipped to rendition sites external to the USA for "questioning", the rest were taken for processing, and after that headed for black sites or general prison, depending on how dangerous they were. As soon as they'd cleared out any computer centres, document stores, development labs, factory set ups or warehouses, they were mined for demolition and up they went, in the case of the factories and armaments stockpiles, they really went up, the explosions were epic when the ammo and explosives stored there part of it. That day was also a very bad day for the shipping insurance industry, because twenty three ships carrying major shipments for Volkoff Industries sank and/or blew up. By the end of the day, there was a lot more to be done and the clean up would take months, at least, but Volkoff Industries had been wiped out, there was no way that they'd be coming back.

One thing that Stephen had been fairly insistent on, and Mary supported (though with far less enthusiasm) was that they needed to capture Alexei Volkoff and bring him back, so Sarah had her team tranq him, secure him and extract him to their plane to get him back to the States, they kept Volkoff under for the entire trip. When they got onto the plane, Sarah and Mary got rid of the disguises they'd been using, and Sarah went to catch up on some sleep as soon as they took off, but she woke about six hours into the flight. Mary was sitting there, looking at Volkoff with a conflicted expression on her face, so Sarah got a couple of cups of coffee and went to sit with her. After a while, Mary started to speak, "Underneath the monster, he's a good man." Sarah looked at her, confused. "Alexei Volkoff is a construct, a personality that was imprinted into someone, a friend of our's." Now Sarah had progressed to shock and disbelief. Mary looked at her, "You know what Stephen used to do?" Sarah nodded, looking around to ensure that no-one else was close enough to overhear them "The Intersect and the technology the CIA wanted? Yes." Mary nodded "Good, that makes this easier to explain, the earliest plans for the Intersect were to imprint a personality onto someone's brain, so that they could walk into a situation and BE the person that they were expected to. Hartley, the host (nodding at Volkoff) worked with Stephen, and when they were being pressured by Graham to deliver on that functionality before Charles was born, he volunteered to do the demonstration of Agent X (the imprinted persona) for Graham. They were like little boys, they'd been testing these things on themselves and nothing bad happened so they were sure they'd be fine. In the first demonstration, Hartley was fine, but Graham came back when Charles was eight and a half or so, saying that they had an urgent need to send someone into the Eastern Europe weapons market for two or three months and the cover had to be perfect, so the Agent X persona was the only way it could be done. He played Hartley like a fiddle, so he agreed to do it, go in for two or three months to get the intel they needed and then he'd be extracted. Stephen and Hartley went over the Agent X coding hundreds of times to make sure that it was safe, they put an array of exit triggers into it that could be used to get him out of it, and just to be sure, the program was hard coded to end after six months if it hadn't been exited before then, Stephen also put a hook into it to make sure I could get close enough to activate the triggers, a mild attraction to me, just enough that he'd like having me around.

The problem was what we couldn't see, that the whole "need" for the undercover operation was just a ruse, Graham thought that Stephen's attachment to me was weakening his hold over him, so he was engineering a scenario to get me out of the way. He got one of his people on Stephen's team, Ted Roark.." Sarah looked at her "From Roark Industries, the one who was the head of Fulcrum?" "Yes, back then he was just one of Graham's minions but he must have been well paid to betray us, anyway, he got Roark to sabotage the Agent X program, we think he was just supposed to screw up the exit triggers to stop the program finishing, but whatever he did totally changed the Agent X personality, so instead of a bombastic Russian arms dealer of dubious morals, Agent X was a psychotic megalomaniac with no morals who crushed anyone who may think of crossing him. Anyway, Agent X was inserted into Eastern Europe while we were trying to get Graham to allow us to turn it off before Hartley got hurt, but that didn't suit Graham's plans, so he just said that the new Agent X was even better at this than than the original would have been, and reminded us that it was due to terminate after six months, so we could extract him then. About a month before the program was due to terminate, I went in so that I could get into place and ready to extract Hartley by the time the Agent X program finished, that's when we found out the next problem with the program, the "mild attraction" that was supposed to be coded in had changed to a total obsession, so much that he'd hardly let me out of his sight. Soon after I was in place, someone in the CIA (under Graham's orders, I'm sure) sent a tip off to Volkoff that I was a CIA agent, obviously expecting him to kill me and get rid of the problem, but his obsession for me was so strong that I could manage to convince him that I'd turned and wanted to stand by him, so I lived. Even though he was obsessed with me, the man was still smart and he would have picked up on it if I tried to use the exit triggers on the program at that point, so I had to wait another week or two for the six months to be up so it would terminate on its own, but it didn't. I got desperate enough to try the triggers then, only to find that none of them worked, so I got ready to run. That was when I found out that he'd had a full investigation into everything about me run by his people in the US, and he knew everything about Stephen, Eleanor, Charles, where they lived, where they went to school, everything, and I knew that while he may not kill me, the man was an amoral monster who would happily wipe out everything I loved in a heartbeat, so I couldn't leave, I had to stay to protect them.

Sarah was looking at her in horror, before Chuck she wouldn't have been able to understand Mary's thought processes at that point, but if someone was hanging that threat over Chuck's head, she'd do whatever it took to protect him, and that thought brought up a different one that wasn't much less horrifying, what had Mary had to do to protect her loved ones? Mary read her expression, and shook her head, "No, luckily when Roark screwed up the Agent X persona, it allowed Hartley's underlying personality to come through for other things outside the programmed aspects, and Hartley was, is, an incurable romantic, so he's spent the last twenty odd years trying to romance me but has never tried to force a physical relationship, that was the only thing I was saved from, though." She looked out of the window for a few minutes in silence before continuing, she was actually glad that it was Sarah who was here with her just now, and not her husband or children, because Sarah may have a chance of understanding what she had to do, whereas she didn't think her family ever could. "I spent the last twenty years or so as Volkoff's right hand, in a world where the only place for women was as wives or whores, and I couldn't afford to show a shred of weakness or the pack would have torn me to shreds, if anyone ever questioned Volkoff, it was my job to kill them then and there, if anyone questioned me, I was expected to do the same, or at least damage them severely, I was expected to, and did, torture or kill anyone I was told to, whenever I was told, and I destroyed lives and families on a regular basis, how can I go back to my family now? I'm a monster, no better than Volkoff himself!" She started to cry, a broken woman, and Sarah held her. "I can't tell you what Stephen or Ellie's reactions will be, but Chuck has had to face the same things with me, as well as the fact that I have been forced to have sex with marks on my missions and the fact that I had a relationship with the man who pretty much destroyed his faith in humanity, and he accepted me to be his partner and his wife, your son is an incredibly forgiving, wonderful man, and he will not turn you away when you reveal what you had to do to him, I'm hoping that Stephen and Ellie will be just as understanding, but as I said, I don't know them well enough to know how they'll react." Mary lifted her tear stained face to hopefully ask her "Do you really think that Charles can accept me with all that I have done?" "Yes, you're stuck with us Mom." At that Mary smiled through her tears and hugged her, wiping the tears away she sat up, saying that it was time to get to know her daughter-in-law, looking at her, she said "Yes, I can see a lot of Emma in you, you know that it almost broke her whenever she was forced to leave you to do those bastards' bidding don't you?" It was Sarah's turn to cry as she nodded, and Mary went on, "I can't believe it, of all the people to be sent to my baby boy, it was my friend's little girl, we talked about you so much, because you were the only thing she cared about, anyway, tell me about yourself, and Charles, and the two of you." "Well, for a start, you really need to get used to calling him Chuck, because he doesn't like being called Charles, and for another thing, do you know who it was who toppled most of your records at the Farm?"


	15. Vivian

**The way things are going made me rethink the structure in the Fish Palace, so I've gone back and made some adjustments in earlier chapters (mainly Cougars), basically, there are four, three bedroom apartments instead of two, big four bedroom apartments on the first floor now.**

 **Usual disclaimer, no rights to any characters portrayed etc.**

"I'm guessing you're going to tell me who took my records off me?" "Yeah, well, for a start, it was really impressive that so many of them held for twenty years, and you could say that there's an upside, in that they've sort of stayed in the family?" "What do you mean stayed in the family? Charles never went to the farm… Oh, OK, they're still in the family because my daughter-in-law has them now I take it?" Sarah gave her a shy grin, letting her see momentarily the girl that was married to her baby boy, rather than Enforcer who (rightly so) had most of the intelligence community afraid of her, but that happy girl abruptly vanished as she began to speak. "Well, I was competitive, but it was mainly because Director Graham was holding something over me that meant that I had to try to dominate in every area (bar one, she added under her breath with a haunted expression), so I went after any records that stood and took most of them." Mary stared at her, asking her with dread "What did he do to you?" "I, I can't talk about that now, can we change the conversation, please?" "Sure, sure, but know if you want to or need to discuss it with someone, I'm always here, OK?" Sarah gave her a grateful smile and a nod as she tried to pull herself together.

They tried to put the downturn of the conversation behind them and by the time they landed in Washington, Mary and Sarah had made reasonable mileage towards their mother-in-law – daughter-in-law bonding, but by then Mary was struggling to accept the next thing that had to happen. Stephen, Ellie and Chuck had reverse engineered Roark's hacked up version of the Agent X program (Stephen had grabbed a copy of it when they were trying to work out what had gone wrong, and had kept it with what he took with him when he left, along with the videos of the original demonstration and when Alexei Volkoff was created), and were confident that they could totally remove it from Hartley, but before they could do that, they had to extract whatever Alexei Volkoff knew, because it would be gone once Agent X was removed, so he had to be interrogated, and it would require strenuous interrogation methods to extract the intel that was locked in Volkoff's head.

As they were watching Volkoff being transferred to the NSA facility, Sarah could see that Mary was concerned about something, so she asked her what was wrong. When Mary explained to her what had to happen, Sarah offered to do the interrogation for her, but Mary insisted that she needed to do it herself. She eventually agreed to let Sarah step in though if she couldn't handle it or it was bogging down. The only saving grace in having to do this was that Hartley wouldn't remember any of what happened once Agent X was removed, his body would experience the residual physical effects of the interrogation he'd gone through, but he'd be spared the mental torment. They tag teamed on Volkoff for most of a day, and then, when they were confident that they'd extracted everything that they could, put him out again to let his body recover a little before they removed the Agent X program. Once the interrogation had finished, Mary stayed in D.C. with Stephen, while Sarah headed home to L.A. to be with Chuck and the family. At least this time she didn't have to use fake orders to get her hands on an F-16 to get her home quicker, the General had the necessary orders issued through the proper channels. Chuck drove up to Edwards AFB to pick her up in her Porsche, and he was actually enjoying the reaction he got when he flashed his NSA SAIC credentials at the guards to get onto the base.

They did manage to extract a lot of intel about Volkoff Industries and its dealings from Volkoff, but the one thing that they couldn't get their heads around wasn't related to the business at all, it was the fact that Alexei Volkoff had a twenty year old daughter. It must have happened before Mary went to Moscow to extract him, because back in the early days when she was there it had seemed that they were never out of each other's sight. Vivian McArthur was given her mother's family name when she was born, and had been living with her mother up until the time that she died in a "car accident" eight years back (Volkoff had decided that he didn't like her influence on his daughter, so he had her killed), after that Volkoff had sent her to finishing schools on the continent up until she went back to England to attend the London School of Economics for her degrees. Vivian obviously had her father's intelligence, because she'd managed to finish her degrees at twenty. The thing was, Vivian was a problem, because some of Volkoff's lieutenants and advisors knew about her, so she was almost certainly going to be a target for those of them who'd want to use her as a figurehead to try and grab a slice of the business that was left over. They'd have to do something to protect her, they just weren't sure what yet.

They kept Volkoff in a chemical induced coma for about twenty four hours to give his body a chance to heal a little, then brought him out of it, and they inflicted a little more pain on him when they initiated the wipe program for the Agent X program. When the wipe program had successfully executed, Hartley Winterbottom was back, but he was terribly confused about where the last twenty odd years had gone. He had been shocked at how Stephen and Mary Bartowski looked, until he saw himself in a mirror and almost had a heart attack. Once he'd gotten over the initial shock of seeing how he'd aged (and the doctor gave him a mild sedative to settle him down), Stephen and Mary sat him down and told him the story of what had happened. Knowing what effect that would have on him, it was set up so that, as soon as he'd been brought up to speed, he started the series of therapy sessions with an agency psychiatrist recommended by Diane and Byran, Dr Dreyfus.

In the midst of Hartley being told that he had been (through no fault of his own) a psychotic monster for over twenty years, of which he now had no memories and was getting therapy for, they also told him that he had a twenty year old daughter, and they discussed how best to protect her, along with Hartley, and his mother (who still had no idea that her son was back, let alone the fact that she had a grand daughter who was a grown woman). It was a wonder that Hartley didn't crack with all the things that were being thrown at him at once, but he managed to hold it together, just. Given the real and present danger that existed for Vivian with Volkoff's old lieutenants etc after her, the General assigned the Intersect team to go to the UK to see her and hopefully pick her up (nominally as part of the clean up of Volkoff Industries) on one of the agency's G650s, and she sent Hartley with them.

When they arrived, Chuck and Sarah were just in time to interrupt an attempt by one of Volkoff's advisors to make her go back with him. They had a hell of a fight to take out all of the team that Riley there with him to take her by force if he couldn't get her to agree, as well as Riley himself when he tried to shoot it out with them at the end. Once the fighting was done, they called in an agency clean up crew get rid of the mess. They really should have called in MI6 or Interpol, but there were things that they needed to explain to Vivian that they really couldn't afford for them to hear, not to mention the fact that Casey and Carina were looking after Hartley nearby, and as Alexei Volkoff he was at the top of their most wanted lists, so if the "proper authorities" were around he'd almost certainly be captured, and "questioned" again. The fact that Hartley knew absolutely nothing about what Volkoff had done would have gone very badly for him under interrogation.

In a way, Riley's thwarted attempt to kidnap Vivian helped them, because they didn't have to try very hard to convince her that she was at risk from these people, she'd already seen that with her own eyes. After Vivian had had a drink to settle her nerves, they sat her down and filled her in on the risks and trials in front of her, her father, and what happened to him to make him the way he was before. Vivian was obviously having a hard time believing what Chuck was telling her, and was only accepting Sarah's explanation when she basically repeated her conversation with Mary about Hartley on the plane (leaving out some of worst parts that didn't help the explanation) a little better, but the videos of Hartley transitioning to Agent X, and then back to Hartley in the initial demonstration, and of Hartley transitioning into Roark's psycho Agent X, Alexei Volkoff, did a better job of convincing her. When she was prepared to accept that the man who was biologically her father (even though she was conceived by Alexei Volkoff) wasn't the man who had done the terrible things that Volkoff did, they had a question for her, did she want to meet her father, Hartley Winterbottom?

Vivian just looked at them for a couple of minutes, before asking "Are you saying that he's here?" Chuck nodded, saying "He's nearby, yes" "I, I don't know" Sarah leant forward to take her hands "Vivian, the choice is your's, but Chuck and I know what it's like to be without parents, we've both just gotten our's back after being separated from them for over twenty years, too." Vivian looked from her, to Chuck and back "What do you mean?" Sarah faltered at that and Chuck stepped in. "I was nine when my mother left, my mother was Frost, the CIA agent who was trapped into being Alexei Volkoff's right hand for over twenty years, so she was only free to come home when we took Volkoff's empire down, and my father, well he went a bit crazy and left my sister and I about two and a half years later but he hadn't been there for us since Mom left. He came back from where ever he went a bit after that, but we didn't see him, and we haven't really had anything to do with him until recently because he's been on the other side of the country and we haven't been able to forgive him for abandoning us the way he did when we needed him, and Sarah.." Sarah had recovered enough to tell her story now, so with a grateful smile at her husband she started. "My mother was blackmailed into working for the CIA when I was three, so she was away from home a lot, and my father was, is, a conman. My father started taking me along on his conjobs when Mom was away, until one day when I was seven we just didn't go back, so I lost my mother then. I was with my father for the nearly ten years after that, but it wasn't a father-daughter relationship, it was me working for him on his cons so I didn't have a parent, I had a boss, and a cruel one at that much of the time. Recently though, just before we took down Volkoff's empire in fact, we had to bring my mother in to protect her from the people we were going up against, and that was when I got my mother back." She smiled at that, but looked away as she paused in thought for a moment and then looked back at Vivian. "This type of thing seems to happen a lot in this business, one of our team mates was forced to fake his own death and change his identity for the job twenty odd years ago, but what they made sure he never found out was that his fiancé at the time was pregnant, so he only recently discovered that he has a daughter who's a little older than you, and they've only just started to get to know each other, but it's a wonderful thing to see. Vivian, your father is a good man, as a matter of fact that's exactly what Mary, Chuck's mother, told me when we were bringing Volkoff in "Underneath the monster, he's a good man." What Volkoff did was terrible, but that wasn't Hartley, if you choose to take a chance on him, I think that you could have what Chuck and I, and especially Alex, are experiencing now, a chance to get to know and connect with your father." She drew a breath. "Anyway, I'm not trying to push you into anything, I just wanted to let you know that we do understand at least part of what you're going through at the moment." Vivian quietly said "Thank you" with a tenuous smile and sat thinking for another couple of minutes before looking up at them. "I think I would like to meet him, yes." Chuck and Sarah nodded with a smile and Chuck called Casey to bring Hartley in.

When Casey and Carina arrived with Hartley, Hartley was incredibly nervous, he didn't really know anything about his daughter, other than the fact that she was conceived when another man had control of his body, and that man had had her mother killed because she might interfere with his plans for Vivian. On that basis, he couldn't really see why she'd want to see him, unless she wanted to extract some form of retribution for what had happened to her mother? He had to give her her chance to say and do whatever she wanted, though, he felt he owed her that because of what Volkoff had done to her. The team left them to talk and went into the next room, close enough to intercede if things went badly, but far enough away not to intrude.

Carina looked at Chuck and Sarah and asked what the hell had taken so long? When Chuck tried to explain that it had taken a couple of hours to explain what had happened, and why, to Vivian, Carina snorted and snarked "Why didn't you just kiss her, it could have been over in ten minutes!" Sarah burst out laughing, she couldn't believe that Carina was still pissed about that. Soon after Carina had joined the team, she'd started making a point of carrying on even more than Casey did whenever they were showing PDA except where it was needed for a mission, and it was getting rather wearing after a while. That was why, one time when she was standing next to them as they were kissing, clearing her throat loudly and repeatedly, Chuck just spun around, took her in his arms and kissed her, deeply and passionately, lightly running his hands over her back in gentle caresses that were sending jolts of pleasure through her. That went on for about about five minutes, and then he stopped, took Sarah's hand and walked off without a word while Carina collapsed into a chair because her legs weren't working. When she'd recovered enough to walk, she came after them, demanding to know what the hell he'd done to her. Chuck put his innocent face on and asked what she was talking about, he'd just kissed her? Carina started poking him in the chest, hard, to punctuate her words "That was not just a kiss, no kiss has ever made me lose control so much that I couldn't stand or think straight, so what did you do to me?" Seeing that her new husband would have a massive bruise on his chest if this kept up, Sarah stepped in. "Carina, look, Chuck's just a great kisser, he leaves me weak at the knees most of the times we kiss, too." With that Carina had stormed off, muttering something about "Not only does he turn me down multiple times, he makes me climax with a kiss, even though I'm fully clothed and without touching me anywhere but my back? What is this guy?" Chuck and Sarah headed in the opposite direction, trying not to laugh too hard. At the time Sarah had pointed out to Chuck that he better watch his back with Carina for a while, because he'd not only been the only man to turn down her attempts to seduce him, he was also the only one who had ever had it over her like that, and that was a serious blow to the ego of the one who was supposed to be the very best at the seduction game, but it had been months now and she was still pissed? Maybe she needed to talk to her?

Vivian and Hartley talked for over an hour, and when the others saw them crying in each other's arms, they were fairly sure things would be OK, so they went back in. Hartley was still a bit fragile from trying to catch up on and apologise for the twenty plus years that he'd missed, so Vivian did the talking for the two of them. "We've decided that we'd like to try and make a new start as father and daughter." She stopped at that point to look at Chuck and Sarah and say "Thank you" quietly. "But from what you've told me, my father has half the world after him because of what Alexei Volkoff did, and I have what's left of Volkoff Industries after me to try and use me to get what they want, is there any way we can have a chance to go forward from here, or should we just give up?" The others looked at Chuck, as impossible plans to make things work out were his forte. "I have a few ideas, but first I think we need to include someone else, Vivian, you have a grandmother." Hartley sat up at that and looked hopeful. "My mother is still alive?" Chuck nodded. "Yes, she's fine and she's still up at the old house up in Somerset, so I really think the next step is for us to get up there so you can see one another, and you can meet your grandmother (he added to Vivian), hopefully that will give me time to work out a way forward." Hartley and Vivian looked dubious at the way that he said that, but Sarah stepped in again. "Trust me, if anyone can come up with a plan to give you your lives back, it'll be Chuck." That appeared to make them feel a little better at least. With that, Vivian went to pack a few bags (and Sarah took her aside to tell her to include anything that she wouldn't want to live without, as she may not be able to come back), and they piled into their two rental cars and headed off to Somerset.

When Hartley's mother opened the door to see him standing in front of her, she almost collapsed, so he grabbed her to support her and help her inside while the others followed them in, closing the door. When she'd recovered enough to handle a few more shocks (hopefully), Hartley made the introductions, starting with Charles Bartowski (Stephen's boy), and ending with Vivian McArthur (who was standing nervously in the doorway looking as though she wanted to run), when Hartley added "Vivian is your granddaughter.", his mother stared at him briefly, then surged up out of her chair and crossed the room in a flash to envelope her granddaughter in a hug. They wouldn't have believed that a woman her age, and who up until that second had looked as though she was, as she'd said "having heart palpitations" could move that fast, but she did, at least her reaction left Vivian in no doubt about whether her grandmother would accept her.

They spent the next hour or so bringing Ruby (Hartley's Mum) up to speed on the gist of what had happened over the past twenty off years, and then she had to make a choice, was she going to stay here and probably not be able to have any contact with Hartley or Vivian again, or was she going to go with them? No-one was at all surprised when her immediate response was "What do you bloody well think I'm doing, I'm going with my boy and my granddaughter, of course!" With that, everyone turned to Chuck and asked whether he had a plan yet?

Chuck was looking distracted as he laid out what he'd come up with so far, but most of them there recognised it as his thinking look and weren't worried. "Well, for a start, it would be safer for you to be somewhere no-one's expecting you to be, so I'd suggest relocating you to the US so you can disappear there, Hartley and Vivian need new names to disappear, and Hartley is a little too distinctive. As I was told a few years ago (looking at Sarah with a smile), simple and easy to remember is better, so I'm thinking Harvey Winters, Vivian Winters and Ruby Winters could be the way to go, keeping your relationship as it is?" He looked at the three of them and after a brief time to think about it, they all smiled and nodded, they were happy with that. "We can set you up with as much money as you need, but showing too much wealth would attract attention to you, I'm thinking that $10-20 million should be enough to get you set up comfortably and cover your bills if you get property somewhere in the Eastern states, outside of any cities? We can give you more if you need it, but as I said, too much wealth on display would draw too much attention to you." Hartley and Ruby looked at him wide eyed at the prospect that $10-20 million wouldn't be enough, Vivian was more used to the cost of things in today's world, but understood Chuck's reasoning and was doing similar calculations in her head as Chuck had been, after a while she nodded, saying "That sounds about right, depending on the property prices, no mansion or Ferraris, just a big, comfortable place and sensible vehicles would make for a good life for us." Chuck smiled and nodded, glad that she understood and was on board with what he was thinking.

When they'd agreed with the overall plan, they helped Ruby pack what she'd need for a while, along with anything that was really important to her, and they headed back to London and the agency G650. Agency movers would go through both houses and take pictures of absolutely everything, and once Vivian and Ruby had flagged what was to stay, and what was to be moved, they'd pack up the houses and ship the contents they wanted to the States after them. As soon as enough time had passed to cover their tracks, both properties would be sold, and the money deposited in the off-shore accounts that Chuck was setting up for them. On the plane over to the States, Chuck outlined the cover backgrounds that he was thinking of for them, and Vivian floated what she'd like to do past Hartley (no, Harvey) and Ruby. The back stories were reasonably close to their real stories, Harvey had a nasty divorce from Vivian's mother when she was little and had taken a string of research jobs in the States because he didn't have any access to his daughter, but now that he'd retired and was looking to settle down he'd reconnected with her. Vivian had lived with her mother until her early teens when she died in a car accident, and because her mother had coloured her opinion of her father, he just gave in to her wishes and sent her to finishing schools on the continent until she returned to England to do her degrees with the London School of Economics, and they'd reconciled after he came to her graduation from LSE. Ruby was the easiest, she'd stayed in the house that Harvey had grown up in up until now, but when her son and granddaughter decided that they wanted to go back to the US for his retirement, she went with them to be with her family. They were happy about the plan, but Vivian and Hartley were worried how a good enough job could be done about amending the records that they could be sure that no-one would find out.

Neither of them appreciated it much when Sarah and Casey burst out laughing, but Sarah looked Hartley in the eye and said "Hartley, my father-in-law can't understand how Chuck can do the things he can with computer records, now do you see why we're sure that there won't be any problems?" Hartley looked at Chuck in disbelief as he nodded slowly, he'd always thought that Stephen Bartowski was a god with computers, if Stephen thought that Charles was that good, he had no doubt that their records would be impeccable, and there would be no risk of being discovered because of them. When Vivian saw that her father was satisfied by what Sarah had told him, she accepted it on faith. With that out of the way, Vivian explained her idea to her father and grandmother, she loved horses, so she'd like them to get a small scale horse farm, nothing extravagant, just something that they'd be able to run with a few staff and which would appear to be covering the bills. She added that she was thinking that somewhere like Virginia would be good, as it would be close enough to the Bartowskis (or rather, Barteks, as that was what Stephen's name had been changed to when he found his head and came back) for her father to see them, and maybe work with Stephen again sometimes if that was what they wanted (she added, looking at Chuck with a question in her eye, and was satisfied with the slow, musing nod he gave). Hartley and Ruby looked at each other and nodded, that sounded like something that they could be happy with, so by the time they landed in Washington, everything had been mapped out to their satisfaction.

They took Hartley, Vivian and Ruby to Chuck's parents' house, where they met Laszlo Meszaros (he'd also had to change his surname to hide from the CIA etc) and Mei-Ling Chiang (her surname was changed when she came over), along with Diane Beckman. Laszlo was there because he was Stephen's partner now and very much a part of the family (Mary had also become close to Laszlo, because she'd sympathised with his plight, especially when she thought about how easy it could have been for Charles (Chuck, she had to get used to that) to be trapped into the same type of life that Laszlo was, she'd had nightmares about that ever since she heard Laszlo's story). Mei-Ling was also a close part of the family now and she would be protecting the Winters, as well as the Stephen and Laszlo (though she had Mary to assist her with that now), so they needed to get to know her. Diane had known Hartley before Graham closed off access to the Bartowskis and others on the project to anyone who wasn't part of his team, so she was there as a friend, but also to get what she needed to do her part of the setting up of their cover lives. Chuck raised the possibility of Hartley (Harvey) working with Stephen and Laszlo sometimes if they wanted to bring him in to consult on things, and once she confirmed that that was something that they'd all be interested in, told Chuck to give her the records she'd need to process him into the DIA (Hartley and Vivian looked at each other when she said that, obviously Sarah hadn't been kidding).

When the Winters were settled in with the Barteks, Chuck, Sarah, Casey and Carina took off for the last leg home to L.A. When they got home, Molly made a big thing about how long they'd been away (even though it had only been four days) and they had to settle her down before they could sit down to dinner. Emma and Ellie had cooked dinner for all of them, as they'd been on the plane for most of the day and none of them was in the mood to do much. Once Molly had gone off to bed and they'd had dinner and cleaned up, Ellie raised something that they'd been discussing while the team was in England. Ellie was trying to put it together as a logical argument, but it ended up all coming out in a rush "It's been great having Emma and Molly there, and Emma is enjoying working with the DCS team and doing the work she'd so good at again, and we'd always be worried about Emma and Molly being out there on their own, so what we've been talking about is for Josie to move in with me and for Emma to take over Josie's apartment. That way, the family can be together, and safe, and Emma can have the access she needs to work on the DCS assignments the way she does now." Ellie finished her pitch and looked at Sarah and Chuck, Sarah quickly looked at her mother to make sure that this was what she wanted (obviously, it was), and then turned to Chuck, but the beaming smile on his face made asking his thoughts superfluous, so Sarah matched his smile when she saw his reaction, and turning back to the others, said "It looks like the Fish Palace has two new residents."

After Emma had gone to bed and everyone else had gone back to their own apartments, Chuck went to the workroom to try and catch up on some of what he'd missed over the past four days. Sarah came to drag him off to bed a few hours later and found that he was looking at the figures of their ghost accounts "How did it turn out?" He looked up and kissed her hand where it rested on his shoulder. "As we planned, the exercise has added over $2 billion to the ghost accounts, so we at least took that much out of the hands of the dodgy politicians and government types, so they can't use it for their nasty little plans. We've also prevented the other criminals who don't hide behind the government from using the money for what they had planned, too. You know, I used to wonder whether we should be turning the money over to the government when we took it off these types, but what we saw the money was used for last time we did that has certainly cured me of those ideas." "Has Auntie D got the President to support taking down the military junta that they paid to get into power with that money yet?" "No, unfortunately as a politician he's no better than the rest, apparently he's sticking to the line that they're our allies, and all the killings and other atrocities will stop as soon as the rebels stop attacking the new government." "Useless bastard, I'm starting to think that we may have it backwards, and maybe we should be looking at cleaning up our own government first? We're always being sent to fix everyone else's "mistakes", but who's fixing our's?" "I'd like to think getting rid of these bastards would do some good, but the rest are just as bad, so this is what we can do." He waved at the screen. "So we take what money we can out of play so they can't use it to fund their sick plans." "Pretty much, yeah." Sarah sighed and kissed the top of his head "Well that's not exactly a happy thought, come to bed and make me forget about this." Chuck craned his head around to kiss her, before quickly shutting down the sessions and standing to take his wife's hand to lead her to their bedroom.

 **A/N: I know I've made Vivian younger than she was on the show, but she COULDN'T have been born before Agent X was activated was activated and Alexei Volkoff began now, could she?**


	16. Cats And Dogs

**If anyone's interested, the back stories for this one are in What's New Pussycat? mainly.**

 **Usual disclaimer for the Land of Litigation, no rights to any characters portrayed etc.**

Josie moved into Ellie's apartment pretty much straight away, but they took a couple of days to get all the equipment removed from the workroom and have it repainted to turn it into Molly's room before they moved in (Emma didn't need the workout equipment, and the flat screen in her room was enough for her computer access needs, so the setup in the workroom wasn't needed, and the other bedroom was too big and fancy for a four year old). In the meantime, the agency moving team went through Emma's house, cataloguing everything so that she could identify what she wanted moved. By the end of the week, Emma and Molly were settled into the apartment and arrangements were starting to be made to sell the house for her.

In the meantime, the team was discussing the issues they were having meeting the Intersect team workload requirements, when they went after Volkoff Industries they were stretched way too thin, and that wasn't the only time they'd had that problem. The issue was the same one they'd had when they co-opted Carina into the team, the fact that they couldn't trust just about everyone in the business. They were going through the agents that they knew, and one by one they were almost unanimously rejected, until Carina looked hard at Sarah and said "Zondra", the way that Sarah reacted showed that there was history there that the others didn't know about, and it was a little scary the way that Sarah came back at Carina. "Are you fucking crazy? We're trying to find someone we can trust, not a fucking traitor!" Carina didn't back down, even though Chuck or Casey wouldn't have wanted to be standing in front of the raging juggernaut that was Sarah at the moment. "I've had it with you! You wouldn't listen to reason back then, but you fucking will now!" Chuck tried to step in to diffuse the situation, but Sarah stopped him with a raised hand , fixing Carina with a murderous look as she said "Well, why don't you enlighten me then?" in a tone dripping with sarcasm. If Carina had a shred of self preservation she would have left it there, but she had the bit between her teeth and she wasn't about to stop until they sorted this out.

"Tell me this, if Zondra was the traitor, why would she almost get herself killed trying to save you in that warehouse?" "What do you mean?" "If you'd been paying attention to the radio in there, you would have known that she saw the situation that you were in and we were trying to work out how to save you. I was pinned down with my team, and so was she, but she left her team where they were and tried to get to you, that was how she got shot up that night! Go back and check the recordings, though, I'm sure you won't take my word for it!" "Why didn't you tell me?" "Think back Blondie, we TRIED, but once you found the boot with the transmitter in the heel you wouldn't listen to a word that Zondra or I said, you just kept waving that fucking boot around like it was a sceptre of truth or something!" "I didn't….." "Yeah, you wanna try that again? Because we both know that's exactly what you did!" "Why didn't you tell me after that?" "I TRIED! For six months I tried, but you made it obvious that if I didn't stop, I'd lose you, and I couldn't handle that, if I didn't have you I would have offed myself, you know that." The look that Sarah turned on her now was full of regret and remorse, as she'd been running this all through her head and realised that what Carina was saying was all true, she'd just been too hurt and angry at the time to hear it. "I'm Sorry." then she thought for a bit and turned back to Carina with a look that was pure regret this time "But we'll never know who it was, it was investigated back then but we couldn't get any answers, if we couldn't find the answer then, how are we supposed to find it now?" Carina smirked at her "What?" "We've got something now that we didn't have then." Again "What?" Carina's smirk widened as she asked "Who has access to almost all information and is better at analysing that information than anyone else we've ever heard of?" Without waiting for an answer, she raised her hand and pointed at Chuck. Sarah turned to her husband, and for the first time looked hopeful, because Carina was right, if anyone could get to the bottom of this it was her Chuck. Looking back at her, Chuck realised that he'd just acquired more work, because he had to do this for her, but before he could do that, he had to find out what the hell they were talking about.

Sarah told the story about the CAT Squad (with Carina interjecting when she felt Sarah's version was lacking), explaining how the four of them had been brought together, and how they'd been based in Paris, she'd been stuck with Carina for a roomie (that got a snort from Carina) while Zondra and Amy shared another apartment (Chuck looked thoughtful at that, but when she looked a question at him he waved her to continue). Between them, Sarah and Carina described the missions and successes the squad had had, up until they got the assigned to lead the operation to take down Augusto Gaez. From that point, things started to go wrong, Gaez was always a step ahead of them, they'd always just miss him and his lieutenants. (Carina was the one who pointed out how the team fitted together, and how close Sarah and Zondra had been up until the end.) They thought that they'd plugged the leak when Amy found that there were messages coming from the Milan sub-station, but the ones that they found who had too much money in their accounts had died under questioning. Chuck asked who was questioning them and had that same look on his face when they told him that it was Amy. Then they'd gone back and swept everything again after the battle in the warehouse where half of them almost got killed, and Sarah had found the transmitter hidden in the heel of one of Zondra's boots. Everything had fallen apart after that, Zondra was officially exonerated after she'd been questioned, but she and Sarah could never sort things out or trust each again, and the team didn't work any more, so it was broken up. When they finished the story, Chuck said that he'd dig out everything he could and see what he could put together (Chuck's version of "The game is afoot!") It was obvious, to Sarah at least, that he already had an idea about this, but no matter how much she pressed him, he wouldn't tell her anything until he'd properly investigated it.

It took Chuck less than a week to hack into the archives and extract EVERYTHING related to the CAT Squad, and its members over that period, when he got the copies of the communications recordings, and the surveillance recordings from that night in the warehouse, he'd forwarded them to Sarah, as they made it quite clear that what Carina said was right, Zondra was worried enough about her to almost get herself killed trying to save her. His findings when he'd gone through everything showed that Zondra could not have been in position to do what was done by the traitor in half the instances that they'd had done anything. He knew who had been in position every time, but just telling them wouldn't fix this rift between Sarah and Zondra, they had to sort it out between themselves to trust each other again, but how the hell could they get Zondra here to do that? It was Carina who came up with the way to do that, "Engagement Party". Sarah held up her hand with her rings and pointed out that they were already married, but Carina just said. "Yes, but most of the world doesn't know that! Besides which, I seem to remember you whining about how you'd wished you could have had a proper wedding when we flew to Vegas for that quickie in and out wedding to get the paperwork you needed, and there was no-one there but the seven of us, this way you can have your engagement party, a proper wedding with your parents and everyone that you want there." Sarah looked at Chuck and asked if he wanted to get married again? Chuck grinned, saying "Why not, it felt too good to only do once." That got him a grin and "Dork!"

With the decision out of the way, they had to consider the logistics. Like when Jack was in town, they had to find somewhere else to live for as long as it took to run this to its completion, a hotel room or apartment wouldn't really work this time, so Chuck suggested that they get the agency to get them a house for the period and Sarah grinned, picking up her phone to call Emma "Hi Mom, would it be OK if Chuck and I used your house for a month or two?" Emma agreed, no problem, but wanted to know why they'd want to use her house when they had the penthouse here? Sarah explained what they were doing and why they not only had to hide what they had here, they had to be seen to be living somewhere else and in a different lifestyle to what they had here, once Emma understood, Sarah thanked her and rang off, turning to Carina to remind her that she needed alternate accommodations, too, probably a hotel? She also pointed out to Casey that it'd probably be safer if he did that, too, in case anyone was watching them through this. As soon as Emma's things had been moved out, they did a remake on the house, to make it look like a young couple lived there. They did get one request from the General when they laid out the plans to her, a retrieval mission, Roan had disappeared in Morocco, ostensibly on a mission, but given what a lothario he was, he was probably in bed with someone (or several someones, considering that he had supposedly been going after an all female group when he disappeared). They agreed to take on the retrieval mission, but refused to take Josie along as she'd suggested, her aggravation with Roan was understandable, but rubbing Josie's nose in her father's shortcomings unnecessarily wasn't acceptable to them, she sighed as she agreed that that was probably for the best. With the four of them going to Morocco, the arrangements for the engagement party fell to Ellie, Emma, Anna, Josie and Jeff, but they were fine with that, it meant that they could make it a bigger party than Chuck and Sarah would have gone for anyway, purely to make it more believable for the former CATs, or course.

On the plane ride to Morocco, Sarah was surprised that even Casey didn't seem to mind that Chuck kept humming Marakesh Express as he was looking through the files that his father had sent him (maybe it gave Casey a flash back to kinder, happier days?) When they'd been at his father's place in D.C. he'd told them that he was going into semi retirement, he'd work with Laszlo in the DIA on a consulting basis whenever Laszlo asked, but he wanted to be free to work on other things for them (things that should make it safer for them to be in the world that they'd ended up in) away from the eyes of the government. To do that, he asked for access to a couple of hundred million from the ghost accounts to set up hidden labs where he could work on these things (with Laszlo, Hartley, Chuck and others) and buy some promising designs that he'd had his eye on for some time, after a brief discussion, the team had agreed and Chuck had set up the accounts he'd requested to give him access as soon as he got home to the Fish Palace (that was part of what he'd been doing when Sarah came to drag him off to bed). Stephen had sent a batch of files over for him to look at when he got what he needed to move forward, but as Chuck hadn't had time to look through them before this, he was using the down time on the plane to do so.

The things that his father wanted to get started on were exciting stuff, liquid armour suits, a surface film that could be used on suits, cars, planes etc that gave very effective active camouflage capabilities, as well as being a quite efficient solar cell, and discharging plasma to reduce drag/friction on planes and vehicles. Armour systems for vehicles and planes that were a derivative of the liquid armour concept that gave incredible protection capabilities with little bulk or weight. A new battery design that could store incredible amounts of energy with little bulk or weight. Near hypersonic planes with inter-continental range (this was one of the things that cost a fair bit, buying access rights to the technology and designs that had already been produced from a tech startup, HyperMach). Largely electric derivatives of the Moller Skycar M600 design that could almost reach Mach 1 and had trans-continental range (plus a few ideas on extending that range). A high performance airship that was a derivative of the Aeroscraft design. Elegant electric minivan, car and bike designs that used motor in wheel, regenerative braking and wide range active suspension to give extremely high performance both on and off road and long range, using the active camouflage surface to hide them or change their appearance in seconds with pre-programmed themes etc, and larger van designs that used similar systems for extremely capable transports and mobile bases. There were dozens of other concepts and designs that his father wanted to follow up as well, obviously he'd been working on these for years, if not decades, with his crazy (if brilliant) inventor friends, but he'd been desperate to keep them away from the government and others who'd want to use them for their own, less wholesome, purposes. Chuck had called Sarah over to look at some of the more exciting ideas when he started, and she'd found them fascinating enough to stay and look through them with him, getting almost as excited as he was at times (especially at the planes and vehicles, though the armour and weapons caught her interest as well).

Once they'd landed in Morocco, it didn't take long to track down Roan's location, so they got ready to go in under the cover of night. The group that they were up against weren't very proficient, so it wasn't too hard for them to slip past them, the only ones that they had to engage were the guards posted on the room where the tracker device placed Roan, and they were easily tranqed, secured and hidden in another room nearby. When they entered the room to rescue Roan, it looked like the General had been right about what he was doing there, as he was tied to the bed and blindfolded, and started trying to sweet talk the one he was expecting as soon as he heard footsteps in the room. He'd realised that something was off when one of the sets of footsteps obviously belonged to a large, heavy man, and that wasn't at all expected where he was, but he dropped out of the drunken gigolo act when he saw who it was, explaining that this group were in the process of printing large amounts of near perfect counterfeit US notes, and he was trying to get the location of the mint out of Fatima, the leader of the group, so they needed to get out of there so he could do his job. Casey and Carina laughed in derision, but Chuck looked at him seriously. "That's really what you're doing here?" "Yes" "You do know what Auntie D will do to you've if you put her godson and his wife in danger's way because you're here having a bit of fun, don't you?" "Yes, of course I do Charles, sometimes I think she cares more about you than she does our own daughter, now will you get out of here so you don't blow my mission, please?"

Chuck nodded and put the blindfold back in place, after placing a few bugs where Roan could see them, then they exited the room and put the guards back in place, making it look like they'd been knocked out from behind (never mind the fact that they couldn't have both been knocked out from behind without at least one seeing something, but in a country like that, you can't put together an all female army by being picky, and the ones who get the job of standing around guarding a door in the middle of their facility aren't exactly going to be the cream of the crop), before leaving obvious signs to indicate that their attackers had been interrupted and escaped via the nearest exit and across the grounds. Once they'd laid the trail to be followed, they settled down to listen to the feed from the bug and wait to extract Roan when he had the intel he needed. The others voted that Chuck would be the one to tell the General what Roan was doing, because as Roan had noted, he was her favourite after all. After going off and making rather blunt comments as to what, in her opinion, the nature of Roan's true motives were here, she advised that she'd set things in place for an air strike to take out the mint when Roan extracted the location from his current plaything. After the initial reaction to finding the groggy guards waking up and sending teams off after the trail that the intruders had left when they "escaped", the team had to listen to over an hour of sounds and dialogue that they really could have done without hearing before Roan managed to get the discussion with Fatima around to the reasons she was doing this, and where the mint was, Chuck brought up satellite imaging of the location as soon as Roan managed to get Fatima to tell him were it was, and the building at the location fit with the nature of the operation (a mint), so he called the location through to the General. As soon as he'd done that, he packed up and they went back to the room where Roan was, tranqing the guards again and bursting into the room to tranq Fatima and tell Roan to put his clothes on. The girls covered Fatima up and secured her, then Casey slung her over his shoulder and they booked it out of there. When word came though about the mint being taken out with an air strike and her people came running to tell her, all they found were two unconscious guards and an empty room, the team were long gone with Roan and Fatima.

On the plane back to the US, they kept Fatima under and Roan went to sit by himself after talking to Carina for a while (Chuck and Sarah were tied up in each other and Casey and Roan had never gotten on all that well). Chuck eased his arm out from under Sarah as she slept and went back to talk to him. "You know she's really pissed this time, right?" "Don't worry Charles, Diane is always a little pissy with me, but she'll come around, she always does." "I wouldn't be too sure of that this time, she tried to make us take Josie with us so she'd see what you're really like." Roan blanched at that, asking "Why would she do that, sully me in Josephine's eyes like that?" "Well she does have a point, you have a wonderful daughter together, but whenever she hears anything about you, it's something about you being in bed with other women, some of whom who have been no older than your own daughter, and rather less than half of those "incidents" can be explained away as being anything mission related. Have you looked in the mirror lately Uncle Roan, I think it's a bit late to be sowing your wild oats." Roan looked at him resignedly. "Yes, I know you're right, it's just, it's the only way I have to hang onto what I was in my heyday, it probably won't be that long before my darling Josephine will make me a grandfather, but I just don't fit into the happy families life." Chuck looked over his shoulder to where Sarah was sleeping and musingly said. "Someone else thought that not too long ago, but she's fitted in quite well, you'll never know 'til you try."

He looked at Roan and his expression hardened a little. "I DO know that Josie deserves far better from her father, I've known her since she was a kid and she's a hell of a woman, I care about her, she's more like a little sister to me than anything and I can see the good parts of her that come from you, so as her father you need to be making an effort to make her proud of you, not ashamed!" He looked over his shoulder again before he looked back at Roan. "Between us, Sarah and I are pretty much an authority on bad fathers, and you, Uncle Roan, are currently right up there in those stakes." Roan hung his head in shame (the first time Chuck had ever seen him do that) "Yes, yes, you're right, I promise that I'll try, I wish I could promise more than that, but that's the best I can do." Chuck nodded, adding. "There is something that you could do, do you remember Hartley, Dad's old lab partner?" "I believe so, an Englishman, wasn't he?" "Yeah, well, he's back from where he was stuck for twenty odd years." Roan interrupted him "Twenty years? Are you saying that he was.." Chuck nodded and continued. "Yes, that's been removed now and we're setting him and his family up with a new cover life somewhere relatively near Washington, Mei-Ling will be watching over them but she'll be based in Washington most of the time and can't offer immediate protection, perhaps you could stay with them and protect them for a while? I'll tell you now, they're planning on getting a horse farm in Maryland or Virginia or somewhere else nearby, so you'll be away from the fleshpots and Hartley's mum, Ruby, will keep you in line, she's like an older version of Auntie D but more fun. Anyway, you could help keep them safe and a bit of clean air and exercise would probably be good for you anyway." Roan nodded, saying. "Yes, that might be good for me, for all of us, I'll look into it, thank you Charles."

To lighten the mood, Chuck asked Roan was coming to their engagement party? Roan looked at him, "Engagement party? It was my understanding that you and Sarah are already married?" "Yes, but we have a situation at the moment where we need an excuse to bring someone from Sarah's past to us, and Carina suggested that an engagement party would be a good way to do that, as well as the fact that we missed out on the engagement party and proper wedding when we flew to Vegas to get the paperwork we needed for Sarah, so we're going to renew our vows and have a proper engagement party and wedding this time." "Well that penthouse and roof garden that I designed for you will be prefect for that!" "What do you mean you designed it for us?" "Diane asked me to come up with something suitably elegant and decadent to project the proper image for an affluent professional couple running a business like you were, why, don't you like it?" "No, we love it, it's just that we were never told, but that does explain so much. Who else would come up with a glass sided pool with a mirror floor and a glass twelve seater jacuzzi, not to mention the way the "change room" guest cabin out by the jacuzzi and pool is perfect for trysts with that fold out bed, ensuite and bar, as well as the three person jacuzzi bath and shower in the master bedroom ensuite, the baby grand and full wet bar and things like that, we should have thought of you I guess?" Roan gave him a tired smile. "We do aim to please." "In all seriousness, if you wanted a career after you get out of the business, you do have a unique flair for creating the exact image required like that, we haven't had time for a lot of parties there, but it does convey the perfect elegant, affluent and worldly image you went for, though being expected to play that piano for them is a bit of a pain sometimes." "You can, play?" Chuck just tapped the side of his head and Roan nodded as Chuck went on. "Unfortunately we can't use our place for the engagement party, one of the people coming to sort things out is dirty, so we're moving out to Sarah's mom's place to live while we're doing this and the party will be there." Roan nodded, saying that he'd love to come to the party if he was invited and that he'd be on his best behaviour. Chuck grinned and said in that case he was invited as he said goodnight and went back to sit with Sarah again. As he sat down Sarah turned around and kissed him before settling into his shoulder again. "When did you wake up?" "When you left, of course." "So I expect that you heard what we talked about?" "Mmm Hmm" "Was I out of line with what I told him?" "What do you think the kiss was for?" "I was sorta hoping that it was because you loved me and missed me?" "That's a given, you dork, but yes, I agreed with what you said to him, he needs to clean up his act for Josie's sake, and what you proposed about going to look after Hartley, Vivian and Ruby was a great idea, and I do love the place how he created for us as well. And with that, now that I have my pillow back, I'd like to get some sleep, thank you." Chuck smiled as he kissed her head and pulled her into him. "Love you" "Love you too."

They only stopped long enough in D.C. to hand over Fatima and introduce Roan to Hartley, Vivian and Ruby (who were still at Stephen and Mary's), then headed back to L.A. Now that they had Emma's house ready and had a date for the party, Carina called Zondra and Amy back to get confirmation that they'd be there and the four of them moved out to their alternate digs for the duration. They kept up their day schedule, but didn't get anywhere near as much done after hours, because they had to go back to their external places of residence, which were nowhere near as nice as their homes, but it was only going to be for a few weeks, hopefully.

The day of the engagement party came, and the whole family came together, the General, Roan, Stephen, Mary, Mei-Ling, Laszlo, Hartley, Vivian and Ruby came from D.C. while the whole crowd from L.A. were there (including Emma and Molly), along with Uncle Bry and his daughter Kim, Kathleen and Alex, some of Ellie's friends from the hospital who knew Chuck, a smattering of analysts from the agency who they worked with fairly regularly, Zondra and Amy, and a dozen SEALs who knew Chuck and/or Sarah (when they turned up, Chuck and Sarah just looked at Carina, who tried to play innocent, but calls for Mowgli came out before they could be asked to keep it down, luckily Amy had no clue what they were referring to, but Zondra had worked with these guys, just as Sarah and Carina had, so she knew the Mowgli stories too. Luckily Chuck wasn't worried about Zondra, other than her saying the wrong thing in front of Amy, and the toasts made to Mowgli and Shanti meant that they could say it was about Sarah). Sarah had described Chuck to Zondra and Amy as an agent who'd started out as an analyst (which was true), and that had led to them treating him dismissively at the time, but with more references to Mowgli coming out, the speculative looks that Zondra was giving him grew.

As the night progressed, Sarah didn't have a chance to talk to Zondra about anything, but they did manage to clue the SEALs in NOT to say anything else about Mowgli, other than in the context of being Shanti's partner, because they had a traitor in their midst. Zondra, Amy and Carina partied hard and did their best to wear out the SEALs, as did Ellie and Anna. (Josie, Vivian, Alex and Kim joined in the dancing and revelry, but Chuck, Casey and Bry had done the rounds of the SEALs and other guys, telling them in no uncertain terms that any activities with the younger girls were to be kept vertical and appropriate or they'd be coming after them. This especially applied to Kim after what she'd gone through when she was taken by white slavers in Paris when she was seventeen. Sarah watched Bry go after one guy who'd gotten a bit handsy with Kim and remembered the night that Kim had turned up at Chuck's soon after Paris. She couldn't talk to her father about her fears because he would have gone straight back there to track down and destroy anyone he'd left alive who had been associated with the ones who took her, and she couldn't talk to her mother or stepfather, so the only one she could come to was Chuck. When Kim had hesitantly told her this, Sarah had joined Chuck in telling her that she had to stay, but when she'd gone to leave herself Kim had begged her to stay, too, saying that she didn't want to come between them, so Chuck had been sandwiched between two beautiful blondes that night. It had been uncomfortable at first to see Kim strip down to her bra and panties before she climbed into bed and clung to Chuck as though her life depended on it, but while he had one arm around Kim, his other arm was around her as he kissed her sweetly and whispered the story of what had happened to Kim in her ear. In the morning Kim had hugged her and thanked her before Chuck took her home (as she'd gotten a cab to Chuck's), and that was the last she'd seen of her until tonight. She'd always wondered why Casey had never made any comments about the girl who'd climbed into bed with them that night, but while she'd only found out that Kim was Bry's Kimmy when they arrived together, Casey would have known about her back then).

As a result of the dancing and other activities through the night, the women wore themselves out, so they all ended up crashing at the house after the party. Chuck didn't have the makings for that many breakfasts there (it hadn't taken long for Amy and Zondra to make snarky comments about Sarah marrying a cook, of course), so Carina borrowed Sarah's Porsche to do a grocery run and at the last minute, Zondra decided to go with her to help. When Zondra called to say she was coming, Carina stopped to wait for her, but she pressed the button on the remote to unlock the car as she did so, and the Porsche went up. Thanks to stopping to wait for Zondra, Carina was outside the primary blast radius, but she did get hit with some large pieces of shrapnel, and one of them was part of the bomb. Chuck got a good look at the bomb fragment when Carina pulled it out of her leg and went to throw it away and he flashed, only just managing to stop her before she tossed it. He didn't need the designation to recognise it as one of the Gentle Hand's (Gaez's organisation) bombs, but luckily it was written on the piece in Carina's hand, so he was able to use that to identify the bomb as coming from Gaez.

After Ellie had patched up Carina (even the fact that she was still three parts pissed didn't stop her being a hell of a doctor), they took Zondra and Amy into the Dungeon via the back door from the parking station that Shaw had used. The SEALs were still in town, as was Bry, so when Amy suddenly came up with a "lead" on Gaez and they headed off to Rio after him, the team wasn't just a washed out old Casey, Sarah gone soft, an analyst pretending to be an agent (Chuck) and Zondra (Carina was back at the base providing support due to her injuries from the explosion), it was them plus a dozen current SEALs and Bry, who was still as hard as he ever was. Amy was worried, this team wasn't what they'd been expecting and she had to let Augusto know what was coming. She put the fact that she couldn't call while they were in the air down to the fact that they were out of range of any cell towers, but when she couldn't get a signal when they'd landed in Rio she knew something was going on, when she asked why she couldn't get a signal Sarah told her that it was standard protocol for their team to block all calls as they'd been caught out too many times and asked who she was trying to call? "Oh, just my Mom, she was expecting me today and I didn't want her to worry." Sarah looked at her "I think she can wait until we've done this, don't you?" "Oh yeah, sure!" After that, Sarah stuck close to Amy, smirking to herself when she saw her keep checking her phone because Sarah was carrying one of the signal jammers that was stopping her from calling out. Gaez was supposed to be at a party in one of his clubs, so the three girls went in, with Casey and Chuck providing support from outside the club and the rest supposedly waiting back at the plane. When the girls followed Gaez into a back room they were ambushed by Gaez's men and secured. Amy'd had a chance to whisper to Gaez about the two outside in the van who were watching on the security feeds and the SEAL team back at the plane while they were out on the dance floor, so Gaez had the cameras in the back rooms unplugged so they wouldn't see the girls being taken, then sent a team to take them out once the girls were secured. At that point, Gaez was pretty smug as he was sure that he had everything under his control, until one of his men came running back in to tell him that the van was empty when they got there, and at that moment the room was breached by a dozen SEALs.

On the flight back to L.A. Amy and Gaez played up the act that they were enemies. Sarah and Zondra were arguing a little because Zondra believed that she was still under suspicion, until Sarah threw a mission file in front of her and told her to read that of she wanted to know how the mission was supposed to go, whispering "Check the tab and don't react when you read that, I'm sorry, but we need you to keep playing along for now." as she apparently stormed off. When she opened the file, Zondra appreciated the warning, as the file had the tab under the bulk of the pages, and when she went to that tab, what she found were the records that Chuck had put together about all the tip offs that derailed their operation against Gaez, records that showed quite clearly that Sarah, Zondra and Carina weren't in place to be able to do all of the tip offs, but Amy was, and a handwritten note from Sarah added that she probably hadn't realised but they'd been blocking all cell phone calls on the flight and after they landed, but Amy had been desperately trying to call someone from the moment they'd landed until just before they'd gotten into the back room at the club. Zondra pulled off the tab and flipped back to the front sheets when Amy headed towards her. Amy asked her what the file was, so she held it up to show her the front sheets she was looking at, which related to the current mission going after Gaez, saying that Walker was busting her arse because she asked why they hadn't shared the fact that the SEALs were anything other than backup, so she'd thrown this file at her which showed that the protocol listed was for the support team to be nearby to be sent in if anything went off plan, such as the cameras being out in the back. Zondra wasn't altogether acting being angry when she bitched that Walker obviously still suspected her and that was why she hadn't shared this before, but now she was going to be up her arse if she didn't know what was in the file, so she had to read through the whole thing to make sure she wasn't torpedoed with that General back in L.A. Amy tried (and failed dismally) to look sympathetic as she went back to her seat, because she was smugly assuming that as the suspicion was still on Zondra, she should be able to play this to her advantage to get Augusto free once they got there. When Amy closed her eyes for a nap, the others sprang into action, both she and Gaez got a spray of the mixture used in the twilight darts in the face to ensure that they stayed out long enough, and all the ammo in Amy's weapons and mags was replaced with dummy rounds. While the others were doing that, Sarah went to Zondra to give her what explanation she could in the time available, she apologised, saying that she'd been hurt and angry back then and as Carina had finally gotten through her thick skull, she wasn't listening to anyone, Carina had convinced her to get Chuck to go through all the old records and dig out the truth of what happened, and the purpose of the engagement party was mainly to get Zondra there so she could make amends with her and hopefully get the team back together, minus that traitorous bitch, she added as she poked her thumb over her shoulder at Amy, she'd give her a full apology and explanation when they had time, but for now, if she could hold out a little longer they'd get the long overdue resolution that they'd been waiting for soon. Zondra nodded and Sarah squeezed her hand with a smile before going back to her seat with Chuck.

When they landed in L.A. the team (Sarah, Casey, Chuck with Zondra, Amy and Gaez) headed back to the Fish Palace (or rather, the parking station used for the back door) in Chuck's minivan. Amy's idea at that point was that she'd wait for the right moment and then pull her gun, grab a hostage (the pint sized General would be perfect if she was there, but failing that, Walker's fiancé was obviously useless, so he'd be the next safest to grab), lock up the team, grab what they could from their base and get away with Augusto, if they managed to get her hands on that General it'd be a bonus, they could get a lot of intel from her and they could probably get a sizable ransom for her too. Looking at Amy's excitement, Zondra and the others were having trouble keeping straight faces, couldn't she see that this was all too easy? Just the six of them heading back to the base in a minivan by themselves while the dozen SEALs wandered off somewhere else? She gave dumb blondes a bad name. Mind you, her boyfriend wasn't much better, he was so arrogant he couldn't conceive a scenario where he wouldn't win, he must've had some good people working for him to get as far as he did.

They got into the base and the only people there were Carina and the General. They talked briefly and then Casey started hauling Gaez off to the interrogation room, at that point Amy made her move, grabbing the General and putting a gun to her head. That was when she realised that this wasn't going down the way she wanted it to, because they started laughing. The General frowned at Chuck and said "I can't work out which is more irritating, the fact that you're always right, or the fact that you have to be so smug about it." Chuck grinned as he replied "Well, you did agree to be the hostage, I could have done it but we knew she'd pick you because, well, you're so tiny, who's a better hostage than a little old lady?" "Just watch that tongue of your's young man! You may be too big for me to put you over my knee, but I can always order Colonel Casey to do it!" At that Sarah interjected with a menacing "He can try." Amy decided that she had to get control of the situation and started screaming at them to shut up or she'd blow the old bitch's brains out! At that the General drove her elbow into Amy's gut and Amy pulled the trigger, but aside from a "click", nothing happened, she kept pulling the trigger madly but nothing was happening. The General took advantage of her distraction to pull out of her grip and turn to face her, asking "Did you forget to say bang, Dear?" before she laid her out with a wild haymaker. Standing over her, she said "And that's General to you, you stupid little bitch!" Sarah and Zondra couldn't stop laughing as they secured Amy and picked her up to dump her into a chair beside Gaez.

The General picked up a phone and called upstairs, and a few minutes later the lift doors opened and Mary and Bry walked out. Amy sneered at her, asking "What's the geek's mama here for?" Sarah grabbed a handful of hair, almost ripping it out of her head as she pulled her back to hiss "That's nerd, not geek, you stupid bitch, but for your information, Chucks mom went by another name for a long time, Frost, and she's really good at strenuous interrogations, so we thought we'd turn you and your boyfriend over to her." Even a piss poor agent like Amy had heard of Frost, you couldn't go through the Farm without hearing some stories about her, so Amy was almost wetting herself with the thought of what would be done to her, but she tried to brazen it out. "Bullshit! You just trot out some old woman and say "This is Frost" and expect us to believe you? Fat chance, anyway, we heard that Frost died twenty years ago!" When she said that, Mary came up behind her and whispered in her ear "Well, I guess I'm a ghost, then?" She waited about twenty seconds while Amy frantically tried to look behind her before coming back in to whisper "Boo!" in her other ear, and that time, Amy DID wet herself. Mary turned and walked to Casey, and he leant down so that she could talk quietly in his ear, when he nodded she went off to the locker room to get changed into some medical scrubs so that she'd have some clean clothes to change back into.

When Mary returned, Amy was strapped to a chair in the observation room, gagged, while Gaez was strapped to a table in the interrogation room. The methods Mary used were illegal just about everywhere, but she'd honed her craft in Volkoff's world, where legal was something other people did and results were the only things that mattered. Mary had extracted what was in Alexei Volkoff's head with these techniques, Augusto Gaez was easy compared to him. Gaez gave up everything he could think of, anything to stop her hurting him. In between extracting actionable intel, Mary repeatedly asked Gaez about Amy and his relationship with her, the others in the observation room would have felt sorry for her as she shrank into herself more with every answer that Gaez gave to those questions, if it wasn't for how many lives had been lost or destroyed by her betrayals for Gaez. They purposely didn't clean the room when they took Gaez out and brought Amy in, but unfortunately the smell of blood and fear wasn't enough to cover up the smell of Amy, because she'd fouled herself while she watched Mary working on Gaez. Mary didn't have to do a thing to Amy, she frantically gave up everything to prevent her touching her. She actually gave up some accounts that Chuck hadn't discovered when he was searching for what she had stashed away. When she'd given up everything, she and Gaez were carted off to a supermax black site (well, Gaez would be spending time in the hospital wing at first), and the team went upstairs. One of the first things that Chuck got onto was cleaning out every account that Amy and Gaez had to reallocate the money to the families of those who had died or been destroyed as a result of her betrayals, especially the two in the Milan office that she'd framed for the leaks and killed while she was "questioning" them to cover up her tracks. It didn't bring back those who had died, but it would hopefully make things easier for their families.

Sarah and Carina gave Zondra the tour of the penthouse while Sarah tried to explain, and apologise for, what had happened while they were in the CAT Squad. When Zondra accepted her apologies and they were good, Sarah asked her if she'd join the team. Zondra looked a little dubious, and Carina stepped in, telling her that this was the same deal she'd been offered a while back, join the Intersect Team AND the DCS team that they ran as a totally separate entity that wasn't discussed with their primary agencies, their cover jobs were with Piranha Security and Technology and they lived here in the building, she'd have to accept Chuck as the boss as he was the Special Agent In Charge of both teams, but he was pretty amazing. At that Zondra turned to Sarah, saying "Yes, tell me about Chuck." Sarah looked at her "What do you mean?" "You just described him as an agent who started out as an analyst, but really? Frost is his mother, and those certificates and pictures in there (pointing to the workroom) proved what the SEALs were saying when they called him Mowgli, he knows Bryan Mills, General Beckman and Mei-Ling Cho, or whatever name she's using now, yes, I recognised her at the party, there's no way that guy was just an analyst, he's too tight with way too many heavy hitters!"

Sarah shook her head "No, he was never JUST an analyst, for a start, Bryan and General Beckman are his godparents and they were keeping an eye on him and his sister after their parents disappeared when he was young. The General got them engaged as analysts for the government when they were teenagers (Zondra saw the look that passed over her face when she said that, but tabled the question for later) and they made sure that they were able to protect themselves with specials ops training. Mowgli? That was Bryan's way of trying to give him a bit of self confidence. Chuck has been handling the serious parts of the government's cyber-intelligence work and he and Ellie have been doing a lot of serious analysis and planning. When I met him, he was playing a civilian asset who'd been dragged into this mess by Bryce Larkin." Zondra looked at her in shock. "Yes, Bryce, my ex-partner, Bryce used to be Chuck's friend and room mate at Stanford until he got him kicked out by framing him for cheating and screwed and stole his soon to be fiancé. Anyway, Bryce sent something to him and I was sent to get it back, theoretically Casey was sent for the same mission but he'd actually been part of his protection detail since he was sixteen." "He's been working for the government since he was sixteen?" "No, thirteen." Zondra stared at her, unable to believe that, but she turned to Carina and she just nodded. Sarah drew a breath and continued. "Chuck had naively opened what he was sent and it was all in his head (he's got something like a photographic memory), so what was supposed to be a retrieval mission became a protection mission and for two years he played a civilian asset while I was his handler." Zondra looked at her, obviously not believing that Sarah would have been fooled for two years that Chuck was a civilian when he had all this going on in the background. "No, I was, the fact that I fell in love with him pretty much right from the start obviously clouded my perception, but he did a hell of a job of playing someone who was hopeless, he even let himself be beaten up on a number of occasions rather than let me see what he could do." Carina cut in at that point, telling Zondra about how Chuck had convincingly taken her out "by accident" when she was trying to recover something from him when they were on a mission together, adding "He's a hell of an actor!"

Then Sarah took up the story again, telling how they'd moved to their new cover lives living and running a business as husband and wife after Graham got blown up, so the General had total control of the team, which was when she got to found out the truth about him. They still weren't together as such because they'd remained handler and asset, so she'd be reassigned if the agency ever got wind of anything happening, and it wasn't until someone else (shooting her thumb in Carina's direction) intervened that she got to tell him she loved him, which led to her resigning from the CIA and joining the NSA as Chuck's wife. At Zondra's look she said "Yeah, sorry, strictly speaking, we are already married, we flew to Vegas to get married so that we had the paperwork we needed for me to join the NSA as a married woman, and they used Chuck's performance on missions to process him in as an agent at the same time." Sarah stopped to gather herself as she looked at Zondra. "So yes, Chuck did start out as an analyst, and he was an analyst for over fifteen years before he became an agent, not to mention as pretending to me and everyone else that he was a civilian asset for two years before he was allowed to tell me. Now, you know that we couldn't tell you this unless we knew that you're joining us, but we do need you to formally tell us that."

At that, Zondra looked at her and asked "Should I be advising you, or Special Agent In Charge Bartowski?" Sarah smirked at her "I s'pose it should be the SAIC", and led the way to the workroom to let her in. While she was in there, Chuck called Auntie D to get the paperwork processed. As they'd already planned a family dinner for Zondra, they announced at dinner that Zondra was part of the team now and would be moving in. That started the discussion about how it would work, and it was eventually agreed that Ellie would move in with Emma and Molly and Zondra would take over Ellie's master bedroom when she vacated it. There was another shuffle as Emma insisted that Ellie take over the master bedroom in their apartment as she didn't need anything that flash. When the dust settled, everyone was happy with the way that it panned out.

Zondra flew to D.C. to get her paperwork processed and have her meeting with the "big" boss, General Beckman, man that was fucking weird, her boss's boss was his secret godmother? What sort of fucked up alternate universe was she in? When they were in her office and away from untrusted eyes and ears, she went back to the woman that Zondra had met at the engagement party, and Zondra felt comfortable enough with her to ask about that. The General actually laughed when she said that the engagement and wedding were real, they'd both wanted a proper engagement party and wedding, but the situation at the time meant that an expedient wedding in Vegas was what they needed to lock in Sarah's marital status before she joined the NSA, so when Carina came up with the suggestion to have an excuse to get you (waving at Zondra) to town, it worked out for everyone, because Chuck and Sarah could do it right this time, their families and friends (aside from the team in L.A.) had all missed out the first time.

After that, Zondra went to Langley while she was there to get her permanent reassignment to the Intersect Team officially processed, and she had a very disturbing meeting with someone who was obviously quite senior, but apparently outside the normal lines of reporting, Clyde Decker. Decker advised her that he was the deputy director of something that had such a convoluted title that she couldn't really remember it, but he was asking her a lot of questions about people associated with the Bartowskis. She could honestly say that she hadn't heard anything about those people, as with the exception of Chuck, they all had new identities now, so the names they'd been introduced as were rather different from the ones he'd been asking about, but this man was obviously going after Chuck, his family, and the team, and that didn't bode well for any of them. She played her part very carefully, and she hoped convincingly, and left with the promise that she'd advise him if she heard anything about those people. As soon as she got out of there, she headed back to L.A. as quickly as she could, because a) she wanted to get the hell away from that creepy bastard, and b) she needed to tell the team what was going on. This guy Decker was going to be trouble for them, she could tell.


	17. Wedding Bells

**Usual disclaimer for the Land of litigation, no rights to any characters portrayed etc.**

By the time Zondra got back from D.C. the room shuffles in the Fish Palace were done, Ellie was sharing with Emma and Molly, and her old room was waiting for Zondra to move in. Before she started getting settled, though, she had to tell Chuck and the others about this Decker character. Chuck, Anna and Jeff immediately started sifting through the CIA archives to map out where this guy had come from and who he was associated with, and the picture that emerged matched Zondra's impressions of him. From his history, it was obvious that Decker's speciality was moral ambiguity, that is, whereas Sarah (as Graham's Enforcer) had been the one who got the jobs that no-one else could do, Decker took the jobs that no-one else WOULD do, even in a world of questionable morality, Decker's total lack of any moral compass was notable. Decker had been Graham's (as well as other dirty higher ups') junk yard dog for a long time, it wasn't clear who's dirty work he was doing now, but whoever it was, it was fairly obvious that they were coming after Chuck and his family.

Zondra was settling into the apartment, and the team (or family, rather, they were definitely more than just a team) pretty well, adjusting to the different way things were done here, as well as the Piranha, Intersect Team and DIA work, they were madly trying to organise the perfect wedding for Chuck and Sarah's "proper" wedding. In the midst of this though, Sarah was, well, "off", she was emotional and irritable and being rather difficult. At first they put it down to the stress she was under with everything coming at them at once, but after it had gone on for a few weeks, Ellie dragged her down to the Dungeon to do a thorough medical examination of her. When Ellie analysed the results, she saw what she'd expected to find, but didn't know how Sarah was going to take the news she was about to receive. Chuck was panicking more than Sarah when Ellie insisted that they go to one of the secure rooms in the Dungeon to discuss the results but Ellie just told him that while everything was OK, the Hippocratic oath meant that she could only discuss Sarah's results with her.

When they were locked down in the secure room, Ellie broke out in a smile as she told Sarah that she was fine, there was just one little thing, and with that she slid the file across to her. Ellie wasn't prepared for the way that Sarah freaked out when she read what was in front of her, she thought that this would make her happy, not panic stricken. "I'm sorry Sarah, I just presumed that you'd be happy to be starting a family with Chuck?" Sarah shook her head as she took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself enough to talk. "No, I AM happy to having a baby with Chuck, I'm not at all sure that I'm READY for it, but I am happy, it's just that, how could this happen? I wasn't supposed to get pregnant." Ellie looked at her with amusement. "Did you really think that you could have as much sex as you two have been having without a chance of getting pregnant?" "But the agency contraceptive implants were supposed to ensure that I didn't… Oh, right, that's why." Ellie raised an eyebrow. "Care to share?" "My implant was supposed to be replaced about six months after Graham was killed, but there was no way I was ever going to agree to any seduction missions ever again, and with Auntie D having sole control over us I didn't need to worry about being forced to take them. On top of that, with the agency looking over our shoulders all the time, we couldn't afford to take our physical relationship to the next level at that point, so I didn't see any need to do anything about the implant at the time. Then when we flew to Vegas to get married and we could be together openly, we were too tied up in the moment to think about little details like that. I guess Chuck presumed that I was still covered or I would have said something, but I wasn't thinking about anything but him, and making up for all the time we'd lost." She finished with a little smile, which Ellie responded to with a much bigger grin as she said "Oops?" "Yeah, oops." Ellie turned serious as she became Sarah's doctor again. "Do you want to go ahead with this? It looks like you're nearly two months along, so if you choose to terminate the pregnancy you'll have to do it very soon." The sister and the woman in Ellie was very glad to see the outraged look on Sarah's face as she responded "What? NO! I'm not going to get rid of our baby, how could you suggest that?" Ellie put her hands out to placate her, saying that as her doctor she had to present her options to her, but as the prospective aunt, she was overjoyed with Sarah's decision. Sarah settled back, mollified by her response, and then a smile full of stunned awe spread across her face "I'm going to be a mother?" Ellie said "It looks like it Sis." with a smile as she gathered her into a hug, a surprisingly gentle one for Ellie in deference to Sarah's condition. With that, Ellie went upstairs to send Chuck down to talk to his wife.

Once they'd settled down enough, they went upstairs to tell Emma, and call Chuck's parents, Auntie D and Uncle Bry while they were with her. With the immediate family advised they went back to the office to tell the others. While everyone was thrilled by the news, there was a panic when they realised that it threw their wedding plans out of whack, because if it was too long until the wedding, the one of kind Vera Wang wedding gown that had been made for Sarah may not fit properly. As the primary wedding planner, Ellie called the place that she'd found to have the wedding to see whether they could bring the date forward from the current plans for over four months away. While the owners of the estate were enchanted by the reason that they needed to change the date, the best they could do was in five week's time, so she locked that in with thanks, and started rounding up the troops to get everything else organised in time. It didn't take long to settle on the wedding party, Ellie was Maid of Honour and Carina and Zondra were the Bride's Maids, Casey was Best Man and Bry and Jeff were the Groom's Men, Molly was the Flower Girl. Chuck asked Sarah if she wanted him to track down her father to walk her down the aisle and give her away, but she shook her head, she was under no illusions about her father, if they brought him into their lives he would only try and use what they had to feather his own nest, and he'd have no qualms about endangering them to do so, no, he hadn't been there when she needed him and she wasn't going to let him ruin this moment for her, for them. Chuck nodded and said that he was sure that Bry be happy to walk her down the aisle, but she shook her head with a smile, she had another idea and headed out to talk about it. When she came back half an hour later she was smiling, and said that it was sorted, Anna and Josie would walk her down the aisle and give her away, Chuck just looked at her with a raised eyebrow, so she explained her reasoning, Anna and Josie had been the only ones in the family who weren't part of the wedding party, and that didn't sit well with her, but she couldn't have four Bride's Maids if he only had two Grooms' Men, so with an absent deadbeat father, she thought it would be perfect for the two other women who were part of her family to give her away, Chuck nodded with a smile, saying "Works for me!", that meant that they had to get six of the Bride's Maids' style dresses made, for Ellie, Carina, Zondra, Anna, Josie and Molly, along with four matching tuxedos for Chuck, Casey, Bry and Jeff.

Ellie was keeping a close eye on the wedding location to make sure that nothing went wrong, it was an idyllic setting that she'd lucked onto when she was hunting for the perfect spot. It was a beautiful and quaint little old Spanish style chapel inside a private estate that was located on top of the cliffs overlooking the ocean, the area in front of the chapel was made up of lush green lawns with some elegant gardens, and this was where they'd have the reception, a parquet dance floor would be laid down for the occasion, with the tables arrayed around the edge of the floor, like the engagement party, the wedding would be a reasonably small affair, mostly restricted to the people who actually meant something to Chuck and Sarah, though with the forces against them, they would have a significant security detail arrayed around the estate to keep others out.

From the time that they'd given him access to the funds to follow his projects, Stephen and the others had been working on making mileage on them. Stephen never stopped being paranoid, and for various reasons he picked the Skycar derivatives (that they referred to as the Wraith series) as the first thing to focus on, they quickly knocked up the six seat Wraith Wagon version as the flying test bed, Chuck, Sarah, and Casey had all given the Wraith Wagon a workout and were quite impressed with its capabilities, so as soon as that was sorted out, they went straight to building the Wraith Truck version that was about three times the size of the six seater, and had equivalent capacity to the old DHC-5 cargo planes (ultimately they were also planning Wraith Van versions twice the size of the Wraith Wagon, and Wraith Semi versions, twice the size of the Wraith Truck with equivalent capacity to a C-17). Stephen had it stuck in his mind that they'd probably need an safe escape mechanism sooner rather than later, and he and the team of crackpot (brilliant but skating on the edge like Stephen) inventors that were helping him were pulling out all stops to get it flying and usable. They had the Wraith Truck working properly with the full active camouflage capabilities etc in time for the wedding and Stephen had it flown in under autonomous control in full stealth mode, to "hide" itself down towards the sea cliff on the day of the wedding, they ended up being very thankful for Stephen's paranoia on that day.

The day of the wedding dawned perfect, the clear blue sky dotted with a few fluffy white clouds. The General had posted NSA strike forces around the perimeter of the estate to secure the site, and she and Mary were overseeing the set up of everything for the ceremony and reception. The wedding party and Emma were getting ready back at the Fish Palace and then all them would be driving down together in three cars (Ellie wasn't sure whether Sarah or Chuck reacted more strongly when she jokingly pointed out that as the groom isn't supposed to see the bride before they're wed, they should be going in separate cars, like THAT was going to happen!). They got there together, and did the finishing touches in the marquees that had been set up for them, and headed for the chapel, the guests, including their parents, were in place when Ellie and the Bride's Maids and Chuck and his Groom's Men took their positions up front When the music started Chuck and the others turned to watch as Molly preceded Sarah, scattering petals as she went with a solemn concentration that sparked smiles throughout the chapel, but as adorable as he found his little sister-in-law, as soon as Sarah started down the aisle, everything else disappeared as he only had eyes for her, and she him. Sarah glided down the aisle, flanked by Anna and Josie, with her eyes locked on Chuck's and a serene smile on her face. Once they'd reached the end, the celebrant asked "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?", Anna and Josie responded "We do" in unison, before curtsying to her as she moved to take her place beside Chuck, when she was in position they went to take their seats beside Emma and Molly. The ceremony was simple and dignified, though as the newly-wed (again) couple left the chapel, there was a twist that they weren't expecting as they had an honour guard of twenty four SEALs in full dress uniforms waiting for them to form a sword arch, some of the military people present snarked that this wasn't appropriate for civilians, until some of those hearing their comments (including some of the SEALs themselves) advised them tersely that the bride and/or groom had served with everyone in the honour guard at some point, and suggested pointedly that they shut up!

The perfect weather held for the reception, and they were through the pictures, speeches, dances and dinner before the wedding was disrupted by what was obviously a fire fight that broke out down at the gates to the estate. When the shooting broke out Stephen told them all to run for the Wraith Truck, initiating the start up sequences from his wrist computer as he did so. The SEALs produced weapons and headed the other way to act as a rear guard while Chuck directed the rest of the wedding party, along with his parents, Mei-Ling, Laszlo and the "Winters" to get to the Wraith Truck as quickly as possible. When Sarah looked ready to argue, Casey just scooped her up and ran with her, with Jeff doing the same with Molly, and the others helped Emma, Hartley and Ruby along. The General told Chuck to get going as she'd manage things here, sending Bry with him when he looked like he was going to stay to help. At that moment, the gate was breached by a LAV (Light Armoured Vehicle) followed by a couple of military vehicles, so Chuck and Bry took off at top speed after the others. They hit the door closure as they entered and Chuck went to join Casey in the cockpit, struggling to retain his footing as the aircraft had left the ground the second that he and Bry were on board. Chuck used the Wraith Truck's systems to scan the forces on the ground, and he was getting enough flashes from those on the attackers' side to be pretty sure that they were CIA, SAD for the most part (which would be interesting when they came up against the SEALs at the wedding, as most of them were SAD, too). Just before they were out of sight, he managed to see who was running this, because once most of the shooting had finished, Clyde Decker emerged from the LAV, obviously this guy was still coming after them, hard, but the question of why remained. Oh well, Auntie D had enough support back there to put a stop to the CIA's dog quite definitively (especially with the Director of National Intelligence being among the wedding guests and related to her), and if any of her NSA soldiers or the wedding guests were dead or injured, the powers that be would be ripping into the CIA demanding answers for their actions today and ensuring heads would roll, but Chuck wanted to chance to dig beneath the veneer and find out what their plan was, and just how much danger their family was in.

When they were out of range and sure that they'd evaded detection, Chuck took over the controls to get a feel for the Wraith Truck, all the systems and principles were the same as the Wraith Wagon, but at three times the size and weight, it had to feel and handle differently. It did feel more substantial, but it was still quite nimble and spritely, so they were both surprised that the team had managed to make the bigger craft almost as manoeuvrable as the little Wraith Wagon. They had no problem landing the Wraith Truck on the Fish Palace's roof garden, because it had been designed and laid out to allow them to land big helicopters there. As soon as they were down, they sent the others in while they plugged in the recharging leads, to ensure that it would be ready to go if they had to leave in a hurry. That done, they went inside and Chuck went to their room to console Sarah about their wedding being ruined by that bastard, before getting changed and going into the workroom to start hacking through the CIA's systems to find out who the hell Decker was getting his orders from. The thing was, Decker was nothing but a blunt instrument being used by someone else, so going after the dog wouldn't do them any good, they had to trace the path back to his master, or masters. There was also the question of how they'd found out the location of the wedding. The only ones outside of the family, other than a small number of the guests (most had been driven there), who knew the location were the NSA teams assigned to the security details, and even there the rank and file weren't told ahead of time, so it had to be one (or more) of the senior NSA agents handling or organising the security detail who'd leaked the information to the other side, which was yet another mess to be cleaned up.

Chuck spent most of the night tracing through the systems, with Sarah staying with him and helping where she could, they didn't get any definitive answers, but they were seeing a disturbing number of ex-CIA or NSA agents at medium to high levels who were supposedly imprisoned or dead, but who were obviously currently active as part of the same crowd that Decker was. It was starting to look as though all they'd managed to do by catching most of them and putting them away was to put them somewhere that they could be easily recruited or reclaimed by the other side.

When they took breaks from chasing the intel, they talked about their wedding, and they managed to get to the point where they could be philosophical about the fact that all the most important parts were done and locked in before the CIA crashed the wedding (literally, with a fucking LAV!), so the day wasn't ruined, though they WOULD make them pay for what they did, that was a promise they made to each other.

 **A/N: I didn't have time to do the usual clean-up when I posted this chapter, sorry (time flies when you're on the run ;), so I've tidied it up now, no significant changes, mostly just cleaning it up a li'l bit.**


	18. Junk Yard Dog

**There are adult themes in this chapter and it's darker than the others have been, I can't speak for anyone else but I don't see how you can deal with those elements in this world without mentioning them once.**

 **Usual disclaimer, no rights to any characters portrayed etc.**

Given the status of some of the wedding guests (such as the DNI, a number of three and four star Generals and Admirals and at least one medal of honour recipient) who were being shot at by Decker and his force, the fact that a couple of the wedding guests were wounded and that the legitimate NSA security force had four dead and seven wounded (three critically), there was nothing those behind Decker could do to prevent him being taken into custody. With the reminder that Chuck had sent through about the fact that the location was almost certainly compromised by senior NSA personnel, General Beckman assigned her personal protective detail to keep Decker alive and ensure that no-one but her had any access to him. When Decker kept screaming that he had rights and he had to have access to a lawyer, the General signalled to her men and they tranqed him.

Between the General, the DNI and the SEALs at the wedding, it wasn't too difficult to convince the senior members of the force that came with Decker to follow the General's orders, but none of them were expecting her first orders to be to arrest all the senior members of the NSA security force securing the site. Interestingly, some of them were singing the same tune a Decker had been, so the General signalled her men and those with the loudest complaints were tranqed, secured and put with Decker. The others would be questioned as well, but perhaps not as strenuously as these would be.

A little while after the family had gotten away, Casey returned with Mary in the Wraith Truck, taking the General, Roan and any others close to the family who were left there, along with the prisoners and the General's protective detail back to the Fish Palace. Casey, Mary and the General had the protective detail take the prisoners down to the Dungeon, and once they were there Casey put the Dungeon into lock down mode. Theoretically, no-one could get into the Dungeon once it was in lock down mode, but of course there was one person who was able to override lock down, and Chuck and Sarah arrived about ten minutes after Casey initiated it to find out what they were doing. Given that there was no point beating around the bush, Mary explained that they were going to interrogate Decker and the others until they gave up everything, and she asked them to keep them out of this. She'd pretty much expected Sarah's reaction ("No, you may need me to step in if you can't get any more out of them."), and given that she'd shown her skills in interrogation when they worked on Alexei Volkoff together, her offer of assistance was appreciated, but she certainly didn't expect Chuck, her baby boy, to make a very similar insistence. When they tried to point out that they were trained to extract intel from subjects by using whatever it took, and he really didn't want to be around when that was happening, he just looked at them and reminded them of what he had in his head, both Mary and Sarah were extremely unsettled when he said "I can take a subject to the brink however many times it takes to ensure that they give up everything they have in the hope that I will actually put them out of their misery, what I can do with what's in my head makes what you two know look like a Disney movie. You're right, I DON'T want to be here, but I don't want my wife or my mother, or my friend (looking at Casey) having to do this because I refuse to use the superior tools that I have at my disposal. You can go first, but make sure that they stay alive, we can't afford to lose what's in their heads, and if you can't extract it, I will." Sarah stepped up to him with pain in her eyes as she said "Chuck, please don't….?" but he cut her off, whispering in her ear "No, this isn't about my feelings, or what effect it may have on me, we NEED this intel and if you guys can't get it without breaking them, then I need to step up and do my part of the job. I'm not going to sit safe in my bubble and let you take all of this on yourself any more, for our family, the one we have now and the one that's on its way, I need to do my part, can you understand that?" Sarah nodded, with tears in her eyes, so he gently pushed her chin up to make her face him, kissed her and told her that he loved her. With that he made sure he had both of their attention before he ordered "Start on Decker first, I'm going to see whether I can confirm which agents and ones in the NSA strike force were part of who sold us out, If I can, we can concentrate on them and may not have to interrogate the innocent ones who were just doing their job and trying to protect us." At that Sarah smiled through her tears, this was her Chuck, using his brain to find a way to protect the innocent, she reached up to pull his face down and kissed him like there was no tomorrow, finally breaking the kiss to look into his eyes and whisper "I love you." He answered "I love you too." and indicated the workstations where he'd be if they wanted or needed anything, to which she replied "I always need you." He smiled at her and said "Ditto", then after kissing her one more time he forced himself to break away so he could get started on trying to clear the ones who weren't traitors.

For the next couple of hours, Chuck churned through the logs, records and accounts of the NSA agents and strike team leaders that they'd retained for questioning, he was surprised that he couldn't find any evidence that two of the ones who'd arced up when the General had them arrested were part of the current betrayal, but he made a note for them to be questioned to see whether they were covering up something else, or they were just barracks lawyers, either way they were out, they couldn't be trusted with positions of authority. He did find evidence that four others were obviously involved in something, so they were slated for more intensive questioning. Given that he couldn't find any evidence that the remainder or the ones held were involved in anything, they were slated for lighter questioning on the off chance that something may fall out when they shook the tree, but more to gauge what confidence that they could have in them. He was winding this up when Sarah came out, looking concerned. "I think we may have broken Decker." "What do you mean?" "He keeps referring to Graham as if he's alive and calling the shots, but he's dead, we know that, he was killed in the explosion when they loaded the cipher." Chuck looked at her, swallowing as he considered the possibilities. "Or he set it up to convince everyone he was dead so he could continue in the shadows?" Sarah looked, quite frankly, terrified at that possibility, so Chuck said. "It looks like it's time for me to step up and do my part." "Chuck, no, we can do this, I don't want you to get involved in something like this!" He reached out and took her hand. "What did I tell you? I'm not going to sit in a bubble and be protected while you and Mom, and Casey, do all the things that none of us want to do, I have the skills and knowledge in here (tapping the side of his head) to get the answers that conventional methods can't, and I can make sure we keep him alive until he's given up everything, so I've got to do this." Sarah nodded with tears in her eyes and they walked back to the interrogation room together.

Even with the enhanced interrogation skills and information in the Intersect, it took Chuck well over an hour and a half to get the intel out of Decker, and they would have all preferred to have been able to keep believing that Graham was dead, but he wasn't. Decker had been tasked by Graham years ago to find him a double, so he'd searched until he found a man who was as close as possible to Graham's size, build and appearance, and then they'd made him get plastic surgery and have his voice changed to bridge what gap there was, after that they spent over a year coaching him in Graham's speech patterns and mannerisms until he could fool people who worked with Graham every day. Graham ensured that he kept everyone at arm's length over that period so that no-one would be in the position to be able to recognise small discrepancies, and they regularly got the other man to stand in for Graham so that they could confirm that the act was working (and to avoid him getting suspicious when he was called for his final performance). When his plans for Chuck and the Intersect team began to go awry, Graham had his DNA records in the CIA systems replaced with the other man's, so that when the Beta Intersect exploded and they tested what they'd strained from what was left, the DNA results matched, telling everyone that Langston Graham had died in the explosion, leaving Graham free to disappear into the shadows to continue his campaign.

When that news came out, Sarah collapsed, Chuck signalled Casey to stabilise Decker and make sure he stayed alive as he ran to her. Hearing that that monster was alive brought Sarah's world crashing down around her, she'd only allowed herself open up to life when she'd been told he was dead, she'd stopped hiding her heart, her true self, away where it couldn't be harmed and allowed herself to open up to Chuck as fully as she could, because the monster who'd tortured her since before she left high school was finally gone. But now she'd learned that he wasn't dead, so she was vulnerable again without the safeguards that she'd build up around herself since she was a little girl, and she didn't know what to do. When Sarah came to in Chuck's arms, with him earnestly begging her to come back to him, she burst into tears, she was terrified and couldn't speak for over ten minutes, when she did begin to speak, the floodgates opened, and she talked for over an hour as she told Chuck what that Graham had done to her to break her when she was seventeen, all the disgusting, soul destroying things he'd had done to her and made her do, holding her father's life over her head to force her to capitulate, how he'd kept videos of the sex sessions she was forced to endure with multiple men and forced her to watch them over and over again (when she wasn't being forced to endure more sessions), and how he'd used these to totally break her spirit until she was nothing more than a robot who would do whatever she was told, to anyone. She told him about everything she'd done for Graham, her only rebellion being that she'd choose to kill or torture rather than use sex to achieve the mission objective, and Graham would usually let her get away with that unless he was intent on punishing her for some reason. Sarah had been searching Chuck's eyes all the while as she told him this, waiting to see signs of disgust and rejection in them, because she couldn't imagine how the man that she loved could be OK with the things that she'd done. She expected that she'd lose him when he knew what she'd done, and when she did, she'd track down Langston Graham and kill him slowly, then she'd try and find some kind of existence where she could continue as an empty shell of a woman, or just finish things. What she saw, though, amazed her and gave her hope, there was anger and disgust, yes, even an unholy rage and promise of terrible retribution that she never thought she'd see his eyes, but all that was directed at Graham and everyone else who'd done this to her, what was directed at HER was only anguish and love. The only way that she'd survived Graham's conditioning was to take the part of her that was her, a person, and push it down and lock it away deep inside so that neither Graham or anyone else could find it, "Until you came along" She added as she looked up at him. "You broke down my barriers and made me feel again for the first time, and I was terrified, because I knew what Graham would do if he realised how important you were to me." She also explained that as a survival mechanism, over the years she'd locked the memories of what she'd gone through away so she couldn't remember any of it clearly, or she had until the shock of finding out that Graham was alive unlocked the memories.

She looked away as she continued, "That was what happened when I didn't leave with Bryce, he was punishing me for not doing what I was expected to do, the bastard probably told himself that he was going easy on me by not telling me that I had to use any means necessary to get what we needed from Kirk, but he hung the threat over my head anyway." "I'm sorry, I don't understand." "Throughout the process when they were breaking me and conditioning me, they'd implanted a number of triggers to ensure that I'd follow the rules, for example, if I was told that I had to use "any means necessary", I knew that if I failed at the mission (or test), I'd be put through one of those sessions that ensured that I couldn't walk for days and it would be weeks before I could move without serious pain inside, others, well some weren't a reward per se, but they meant that I could have a reprieve from the sessions…." Her face suddenly grew hard as she said "That bastard!" Chuck was lost now "Who, what bastard, what are you talking about Sarah?" "Bryce, he was part of this!" "How do you know that?" "He used Graham's triggers on me all the time."It's hard to say goodbye" was to indicate that I'd done a good job and I could relax without fear of the sessions for a little while, though Bryce usually used it to initiate post mission sex, but even sex with him was far better than the alternatives that Graham sent, "We'll always have Omaha" was basically "Good job, come home", so I did because it was basically a promise that I could come back without worrying about the sessions, until next time, anyway." "For Bryce to use those triggers, he must have been part of Graham's plan." By this stage, Sarah's tears had been replaced with anger as she clung to Chuck, and they only realised then that they could hear uncontrolled sobbing in the room. They turned to see Mary collapsed on the floor, unable to stop crying. Mary had been listening to Sarah's story with growing horror, as she realised that what she'd gone through in over twenty years as the right hand of a psychopathic monster like Volkoff was nothing when compared to what her daughter-in-law had gone through from the age of seventeen. Eventually Mary couldn't hold it in any more, and collapsed as she burst into tears, Casey had come back from stabilising and securing Decker and was standing there listening with tears streaming down his horror stricken face as well, Chuck had been crying from when Sarah started telling him the story, but like Sarah, anger had now made his tears dry up. Unable to think about anyone but Sarah at that point, Chuck signalled Casey to look after his mother and left with Sarah.

Chuck took her up to their apartment and held her until she was asleep, and then went to the workroom to call the General and advise her that Graham was alive and behind the operations that they were up against, when she said that that wasn't possible, he was too tired to argue with her, so he just sent the recordings of Decker's interrogation to her. Before he disconnected the link he added that the term "any means necessary" was NEVER to be used in any communications with this team ever again, if it was, they would lose the services of the team. He stopped to draw a breath before adding. "If we EVER hear that term used, I will take down you and everyone you work for!" "Chuck, we work for the President, it's not safe to make threats that involve him, even over a secure line like this." "Do you think I'm not aware of that?" "Chuck, tell me what's going on, why are you saying…." He cut her off as he disconnected the link, and set his phone to reject any attempts to establish a new connection. He spent the next fifteen minutes hacking into the CIA archives and extracting Graham's archived DNA records, sending a copy of them and the ones that had been used to confirm that it was Langston Graham who had died in the explosion through to prove his point, as the final records didn't match any of the earlier examples. Once he'd sent that through, he went back to their room to hold Sarah while she slept.

When Chuck wouldn't answer her calls, she tried Sarah without any response, then Casey. When Casey responded he told her the gist of what Sarah had said to Chuck, including the triggers that Chuck had threatened her about, but said that she'd have to come here to access the recording as that wasn't going anywhere. When the call finished, she just sat there, looking at her phone in horror for about five minutes, until one of her protective detail asked if she was OK, she slowly shook her head and told him that she needed to be taken to the Piranha building immediately. When they got there, she went into the offices to get Casey to give her access to the recordings, and she grabbed Carina to come with them to listen as well, from what Casey had told her, Sarah was going to need all the support she could get, so her best friend needed to know what she'd been put through if she was to help her. They weren't expecting Carina's reaction to be quite what it was though, until she told them that she'd been put through a similar process (though not quite as extreme as what Sarah was subjected to) at the Farm when they were there, she'd been given the same "any means necessary" trigger to force her to perform, her other triggers were different to Sarah's but had similar connotations. Apparently Graham had been disappointed that Carina wasn't as effective a killing machine as Sarah was, but given the fact that she'd still been as good as any other mere mortals, as well as the fact that she'd use sex the way he required to avoid being sent to that place that Graham was holding over her head, so that she was still more effective and successful than nearly any of his other agents, she was allowed to live, though she had been allocated to one of his cronies in the DEA as payment for some deal that they did. By the end of it, the General's face matched the horror and anguish of Chuck, Mary and Casey, along with the resolve to find an end to that evil bastard Graham, whatever it took.

Once they'd listened to the recordings of Sarah's story and Decker's interrogation, and heard Carina's story, they all went upstairs with Mary to talk to Chuck and Sarah. When Sarah had woken, she filled Chuck in on the rest of her story, the nearly ten years she was with her father, and with the blocks removed from her memories by having to face the idea of Graham being back, that story was far worse than she'd remembered before. She hadn't been used as a honey pot by her father, but that wasn't due to any noble intentions on his part, it was because he'd been stuck in the idea that as con artists, they needed to stay under the radar, not attract attention and ensure that no-one would remember them, so when she'd started to blossom into the beauty that she was around eleven or twelve, he'd started getting her fitted with ugly braces and made sure that her beauty was masked by her hair, clothes and everything so that she wouldn't draw the attention she deserved. He'd made her help him destroy innocent people's lives, to the extent that some of their marks had committed suicide after they'd ruined their families when he'd conned them, not to mention the women whose lives that he'd ruined (single or married, it meant nothing to him) when he got them pregnant and then ran with whatever money he could get from them. As with Graham, any "rewards" were mere tokens, while her punishments would result in her losing anything that she cared about, or she'd be beaten. The more Sarah talked, the more Chuck's rage was growing, he and Ellie had despised their father at times for abandoning them, but that was nothing compared to what "Jack Burton" had done to his daughter. Before today the thought that he actually wanted to kill someone had never really occurred to Chuck (he'd wanted to damage Shaw and that other guy, but he'd only killed Shaw to protect Sarah), but now he had two people on that list, and it would have been three if Bryce Larkin hadn't blown himself up (considering the revelation about Graham though, he made a mental note to check Larkin's DNA records to ensure that they hadn't been switched like Graham's had been).

When the others came up, Auntie D and Carina just held Sarah and cried for a while, and Carina shared that she'd been put through a similar program with Graham. The General started to ask whether Emma should be told about this, but Mary cut her off with "No!" They turned to look at her and she continued. "Telling Emma about this could destroy her, knowing that she hadn't managed to protect Sarah from this and that she couldn't do anything about it now would just tear her apart." She looked at Sarah. "You saw the effect it had on me to hear what happened to you, it would be far worse for Emma and she'd blame herself for it, even though she had nothing to do with it and she couldn't do anything about it. There may be a day when you can share this with her without it harming either of you, but that day isn't today, believe me. I have no right to ask you this, but will you let me take Emma's place to be there for you on this one thing, please?" Sarah nodded with tears in her eyes as she went to hug her mother-in-law and whispered "Thank you" in her ear, before standing back and wiping her eyes. She turned to Chuck and said "It would be best if we did the same with the news about Dad." Chuck nodded, with a troubled expression, and Mary looked at her with concern, saying "I can also be there for you to handle any other matters that you want me to as well." Sarah nodded and said "Thank you" again and Mary turned to Carina, saying that the offer applied to her, too, if she'd let her. Carina nodded and said "Thank you" as well. The General put her hand on Mary's arm in thanks, and addressed the group "Obviously, our priority now is to track Graham down, extract whatever he knows and then make sure that the bastard really is dead this time, I'd like to have Mary, Bry and Mei-Ling here to assist you, it would probably be safer if Stephen and Laszlo are here as well. The others all nodded, and she left to make some calls to arrange things.

Bry had his own place in L.A. but Mary, Stephen, Mei-Ling and Laszlo stayed in the Dungeon as the team launched into the hunt for Graham. Chuck continued to interrogate Decker to extract as much as he could from him, because Decker was their best lead in finding Graham. When Decker gave up the fact that he'd been part of Graham's program to break Sarah and Carina and mould them into the robots that he wanted, any residual concerns that Chuck had about what he was doing disappeared, Decker was on borrowed time until it was certain that they couldn't get anything else out of him, and then he would be finished. There was another lead that he had to get out of Decker before he would be allowed to expire, though, he'd indicated that there was some connection between Sarah and Carina before they'd been dragged into Graham's program, but he was saying that he didn't know what that connection was.

While he was trying to extract what he needed from Decker, Chuck didn't neglect his strengths, and he added the names Samantha (Sam) Burdon, Emmaline (Emma) Burdon, Joseph (Joe) Turner (the name Jack was using when he was with Emma) and Joseph (Jack) Burton to the searches he was running through the CIA systems and archives to find any remnants of Graham's records or connections, there was obviously something important to do with Sarah and her parents, but the nature of it was still eluding him. He also got Carina's birth name and her mother's name from her to add to the searches, because he'd asked both of them about the connection between them that Decker had referred to, but neither of them had any memories of the other, or even of hearing each other's name before they met at the Farm, and Carina had been born about six months before Sarah in New York, clear across the country. The records extracted for the references to Graham or the other search parameters spat out a file on Joseph Turner which proved to be very interesting reading. When he located the alias Jack had been using before he was Joe Turner, something made him call Zondra to ask her to give him the OK to access to her files, and also asked for her birth name and the names of both her parents when she was born, after a hesitation (spies don't like anyone knowing anything about them), Zondra agreed and gave him the answers to the questions he'd asked her, so he thanked her and added her and her parents to the search before opening her file. He went back to Joe Turner's file to look for another name and when he found it he sat back, "Oh Fuck!".

Chuck dug the DNA records for all three of them out of their files and plugged them into a program he'd written to run comparisons on DNA records (he'd found a need for it a while back when they were left hanging, waiting for results in the middle of an assignment, so he wrote it so that he could just plug the DNA records in the usual configuration into the program and run comparisons on the fly) then stopped the program and opened Amy's files to get her DNA records to add into the comparison before he ran it, and while it was running, dug out Amy's birth certificate to find her father's name, by the time the comparison finished, he wasn't at all surprised when he saw the result. He left everything up on the screens and started another search before he called Sarah, Carina, Zondra, Ellie and Casey up to the workroom.

When they arrived, he turned to Sarah and Carina to say that he'd found the connection between them, and was starting to tell Zondra that it went further than that when Ellie (who'd been scanning what was up on the screens) blurted out "Fuck No!", making them turn to her to ask what was up? Ellie pointed to the screen that showed the results of the DNA comparison and said "You're all sisters, and so's that bitch who betrayed you!" They turned back to Chuck, stunned, but he moved to put his arms around Sarah before he quietly said "I'm afraid so, I found all your father's names in a record of the aliases that your father was using that came out of one of the searches I was running for intel on Graham, so I dug out your recorded DNA records, along with Amy's, to run a comparison between them to see whether it confirmed or refuted what the other file was showing, this (pointing at the screen showing the results of the comparison) is saying that you all share one parent, your father." "If you want, we can take the samples for new DNA tests and Casey can go to get the samples we need from your father to test him (looking a question at Casey, to which he nodded), and we can get the tests run and compared by a good DNA lab, adding in Amy's for the comparison to make sure?" Sarah, Carina and Zondra looked at each other and nodded, hesitantly at first and then more definitely, and Chuck looked a question/request at Ellie who nodded, herding the three women into the lift to head down to the Dungeon to take the samples, taking Casey with them to show him what he needed to do to get the samples from Jack. By the time they came back up, the search for Jack had provided his current location and Casey took off after him in the Wraith Wagon.

Ellie left the three women to talk with Chuck about what he'd found. Sarah was sitting in Chuck's lap with his arms around her, while Carina and Zondra were in chairs across from them, and they were trying to work out where to start when Sarah looked a question at Carina, who nodded, and Sarah launched into a description of the program that Graham had run on her and Carina to break them and turn them into robots who would do whatever they were told to. Zondra went white when Sarah described what Graham had done to them to break them and program them to react to his triggers, looking from one to the other, desperately wishing them to tell her that this wasn't true, but their faces told her that it was very much true. When they'd recovered (Sarah and Carina from the memories and Zondra from what she'd just heard), Sarah went on to explain that Decker had given up the fact that there was a link between the two of them (waving a finger between herself and Carina) before they were dragged into that program while Chuck was interrogating him (which made Zondra turn her stunned look on him, as he was the last person she would have expected to be running interrogations), and Chuck had started looking into what the links were, which led to this (waving at the information still up on the screens). Chuck took over at that point as this was getting to Sarah, saying that Graham must have decided to put the four sisters together to see how they would operate as a team, considering how impressive most of them (waving around the three of them) were individually, he asked Zondra's permission to look into how she'd been spared from being dragged into the program that Sarah and Carina had been put through, adding after she agreed that it probably came down to the fact that he couldn't get enough leverage over her to manage to force her compliance, for which they were all grateful (Sarah and Carina nodded forcefully at that). Chuck also added that he thought that if there were any other siblings that Graham had known about, he would have expected Graham to add them to the team as well, so it looked like the four of them were it, as far as Graham had known anyway. The three women nodded at that, as that made sense. After that, they all sat there, trying to absorb what they'd found out that day, the fact that the three of them were sisters was great, but having a traitorous bitch like Amy as a sister was rather less so, and finding out what Sarah and Carina had been put through gutted all of them. When they'd settled down enough, they went to get back to the things they were supposed to be doing, but Chuck raised the question of what they wanted to do about letting anyone else know? The three women looked at each other and Sarah asked "Family dinner? Tonight?" The other two nodded and she turned in Chuck's lap to look at him, asking him if he had time to do it? Chuck's response was just "For you, anything." as he kissed her. Carina looked at Zondra and smiled (a rather strained smile for her but she'd been hit with a lot today), saying "Our brother-in-law, the sap." Zondra matched her smile, saying "Yeah, but he's a loveable sap.", and they both came over to kiss Sarah and Chuck before leaving.

Chuck checked the kitchen and went to the stores to get what he needed to make dinner, once again using the food prep as his planning time for the next steps in the hunt for Graham, going back to the workroom to set things up in the systems once the actual cooking started. By the time that Casey had returned and Ellie had sent the samples and Amy's results off to a friend of her's at one of the most reputable DNA labs to get the testing and comparisons started as a priority job, everyone was winding up for the day and getting ready for dinner. The others knew something was going on by now from how sombre Sarah, Carina, Zondra, Chuck, Ellie and Casey had been, and how they'd been tied up most of the day, not to mention the way that Sarah had called for the family dinner on short notice, so no-one was surprised when Sarah shared a look with Carina and Carina called for their attention. "We know that you're all wondering what's going on, well Chuck found out something from our guest downstairs today, and he's been chasing that up since then. To cut a long story short, what Chuck found out was that Sarah, Zondra and I, as well as that traitorous bitch who betrayed us in the CAT Squad, are all sisters, well, half sisters who share the same useless father that is. Anyway, it looks like we're even more of a family than we'd thought." with that she finished. The others sat in stunned silence for a bit, Emma being the first to react when she hopped up to go and hug both Carina and Zondra, getting a laugh from both of them as she whispered "I knew that there was something dodgy about you two, being his daughters explains it." in their ears. Emma's joke broke the brittle veneer that they'd been keeping up to cover the roiling emotions inside, because Emma's acceptance was just what they'd needed to make them be OK. Once Emma had broken the ice, Anna, Jeff, Josie, Mary, Bry and Mei-Ling also came up to hug them, and Stephen and Laszlo offered words of encouragement. The dinner from then on was a happier affair, though Josie did check with Chuck to ask whether they'd told her mother yet, and was relieved when he said that he'd called her on the secure line from the workroom after they'd found out. With the business part of her question done, she grinned and asked him how it felt to find out that he had two sisters-in-law, laughing when he replied "Finding out that these two are my sisters-in-law? I'm terrified of course, I know what they're like!"

 **A/N:** **A reminder f** **or the cognitively challenged, we're dealing with** **purely** **fictional characters here, so we can't hurt them by saying that they were bad, OK?**


	19. Down The Rabbit Hole

**Usual disclaimer for the Land of Litigation, no rights to any characters portrayed etc.**

Everyone pitched in to clean up after dinner and the others went back to their own apartments etc after that, as they were all reeling from the news that they'd heard to varying degrees, and therefore were drained by the experience. Sarah and Chuck went to bed early as they'd both been wiped out by what they'd gone through that day, but rest wasn't on the cards for Chuck that night, because every time he closed his eyes he was gripped by nightmares of Sarah and/or the baby dying in childbirth or from complications in the pregnancy, compliments of the medical knowledge in the Intersect's throwing out potential scenarios based on the internal damage she'd probably experienced as a result of the abuse that Graham had her subjected to. After the fourth time he woke her up with his screams of anguish, Sarah made him tell her what was causing these nightmares, and the only way to calm him was to promise to tell Ellie exactly what had been done to her and submit to thorough examinations so that they'd know what risks were ahead, and how to mitigate them. Sarah was shocked and horrified when Chuck insisted that if there was no safe way to carry the baby through to birth, that they should terminate the pregnancy. She understood that what he was saying was that he couldn't lose her, but still, the idea of terminating their baby horrified her. Anyway, she promised to tell Ellie the full story (including those parts that she'd left out to him, she added under her breath), and get whatever examinations she needed so they would know what the risks may be. Chuck's firm suggestion that she convince Carina to do the same surprised her for a brief moment before she realised, as he had, that Carina was potentially in the same position she was, and he was concerned about his sister-in-law as well, THAT was so her Chuck that she melted into his arms and promised that she'd talk to Carina.

In the morning, Sarah sat down and talked to Carina about Chuck's very real fears about what could happen due to what had been done to them, and then they took Ellie downstairs and told her exactly what had been done to them, so that she could determine what medical tests would be needed to be scheduled for them. It took Ellie a while to get to the point where she could make any calls about what examinations and tests that would need to be done, because her horror and tears at what she was hearing made her incapable of doing anything for some time. She'd realised that she'd be hearing more than Chuck had when Sarah started out by asking her whether this came under doctor and patient confidentiality? She'd answered "Yes, of course." with trepidation as she knew that Sarah had already told Chuck about this, which meant that there was far more to it than Sarah had been able to bring herself to tell him. When they'd told her what had been done to them she understood, she'd had to hear and study some pretty horrific things to get where she was medically, but nothing she'd heard before came close to what these two women, her sister-in-law and HER sister told her had been done to them, it was all she could do to keep from falling to the floor in the foetal position as she was trying to process this. When she'd managed to pull herself together enough she started compiling lists of the battery of tests and procedures that the two women would need to go through, and after consulting with Auntie D about approved experts and facilities, it was decided that it would be best for Sarah and Carina to fly across to D.C. for two weeks with Ellie, because most of the best facilities that they could use were on the East coast. After a teary separation, Sarah, Carina and Ellie headed off, but the others stepped back in fear when they saw Chuck's face as he turned to go back inside.

Casey grabbed his shoulder and nodded to Zondra and they hustled Chuck into the workroom, putting it into lock down before turning to him and saying "Give!" "What are you planning?" He looked at them with a cold, calculating anger for a moment and just said, "I'm going to get Graham and process him before Sarah comes home." "How do you expect to do that in two weeks when we haven't managed to do it so far?" "I'll get what I have to out of Decker and I'll use every resource that I can get access to to make it happen!" They knew, now, that Chuck could extract more from an interrogation subject than any of them could, and also understood that "every resource that I can get access to" meant practically EVERY system, every satellite on the planet, but as extraordinary as Chuck Bartowski was, it was too much for one man to do, so they sat him down and made him listen. Casey ran with it, telling him that if he wanted to do this, he had to be smart, he had the extended team here and they had the mandate from the General for them to go after Graham so they would ALL work on this together. Chuck looked at him defiantly for about twenty seconds before he nodded, and Casey sent out a summons for everyone to meet in the Dungeon in ten minutes, heading out the door on the summons' heels. When Chuck stood to follow him, Zondra stopped him with her hand on his shoulder, looking him in the eye as she said. "Chuck, we will do this together, I know that you love Sarah more than life itself, but we have buy in to this, too, no one more than me. Those two have been closer to me that anyone has since my Mom was killed, that was why it hurt so much when Sarah turned on me, but on top of that, thanks to you, I now know that they're my sisters, so you better believe that I won't hold back from doing what I have to!" Chuck nodded and gave her a hug before they left the room to head downstairs. When they got down there, Chuck started to walk past everyone on his way to the detention area. Casey asked him where he was going, and he just looked back to say that Casey could fill the rest in on their part of this, because he needed to get started on his first task. His logic couldn't be refuted, so Casey nodded and let him go. Casey briefed the team on what they were doing and allocated Anna, Jeff, Stephen and Laszlo to get started on the electronic intel and image searches that Chuck needed, while he, Zondra, Mei-Ling, Mary and Josie were chasing and following things up through the "normal" channels. Over the next four hours or so, Agent Carmichael sent out a stream of intel relating to items or locations to be followed up. Casey and Mary locked everyone else out of the observation room for the interrogation room that Chuck was using to process Decker, because they knew that the Agent Carmichael in that room wasn't anyone that Chuck wanted to be, or to have associated with him, but as interrogators, the terribly effective methods that Carmichael was using on Decker were riveting to watch.

After four hours, the interrogation session was finished and Decker was stabilised and secured in a detention cell to allow him recuperate enough to be ready for the next session. After getting himself cleaned up, Chuck (he could be Chuck out of the interrogation room) went to take over the direction of the electronic operations. By leveraging the satellite, traffic and security camera imaging, they confirmed that Graham was, in fact, in the locations that Decker had given for him. He moved about a lot, though, so they were waiting on real-time confirmation of his location before they moved. They did have one thing going their way in their search, Graham apparently had "Mr Colt" in charge of his personal protective detail now, so he was never far from him. 6' 5" black men weren't THAT common, especially when one was built like a brick shit house, so having the two of them to search for increased their chances of getting a hit. In the meantime, they were expanding the parameters and building the scope of the files that they were extracting that made up the remnants of Graham's records. It was becoming more and more obvious that Graham was, himself, brilliant, he'd outsmarted and outmanoeuvred the entire intelligence community for what appeared to be about forty years now, but what he WASN'T was computer savvy, so he'd never really understood about the concept of backups or how backups are ultimately archived. That meant that he had no idea that the archives held umpteen files that he'd been working on at some time, sitting away in forgotten corners waiting for someone to come up with the right search parameters to ferret them out. Chuck, and to a lesser degree Anna and Jeff, were the cream of the hackers, and on top of that, part of the reason that Jeff had been so successful as a hacktivist was that he seemed to have an almost supernatural ability to sniff out the intel that he was after, no matter how deep it was buried in the systems or archives. So that was how they were doing it, Chuck or Anna were usually the primaries to break into the systems or databases, then Jeff would define the search parameters to sniff out the files they were after, Stephen and Laszlo were assisting, but it was more grunt work than bleeding edge in this instance (which was quite a change for them).

They kept up the four hour interrogation then electronic search pattern for the rest of the day for seven days, they were amassing large amounts of intel, but they weren't finding what they wanted, which was Graham himself, so when they got a real-time hit on Graham and Colt together in San Diego, Chuck, Casey, Zondra, Mei-Ling and Mary dropped everything and took off in the Wraith Truck (which they'd been keeping in a ready state with all their gear) to go after him. Anna and Jeff were feeding through Graham's movements in real-time so they managed to isolate the three SUV convoy a little way outside of San Diego. Given that they had confirmation that Graham was in the middle SUV, Casey and Mary looked at each other and nodded, just before Casey released two Hellfire missiles to take out the other SUVs and Mary used the 20mm cannon to disable the middle SUV by basically blowing the front off. As they were coming in to land, Colt jumped out of the wreck hefting a shoulder launched missile launcher, and Mary, who was still at the controls of the 20mm, sent a few rounds his way to totally obliterate him. When they landed, Casey, Mary, Mei-Ling and Zondra took out any of Graham's protective detail who were still alive and shot Graham with enough tranqs to put a horse down. Then Casey hauled Graham back to the Wraith Truck over his shoulder while Zondra, Mei-Ling and Mary covered him. The ramp was coming up as they were boarding and Chuck lifted off the second that he saw that they were down on the floor and able to handle any normal manoeuvres the aircraft may make.

As soon as word came through about a convoy of SUVs being destroyed outside of San Diego as well as some stories about an invisible helicopter, the General knew who the perpetrators were, at least, so she was on the line before they got back to the Fish Palace. "I take it from the lengths that you have gone to that the target was important?" "You could say that." "Are you going to make me ask?" "No, it was the undead." "Excellent! I'll have him picked up and processed straight away." "NO! He isn't going anywhere, and no-one is to be told where he is! I'm not taking the risk that anyone will break him out or release him, we will process him ourselves and we will share whatever intel that is relevant to the activities of his organisation." "Chuck, you're not qualified to get everything out of him, I know that this is personal to you, and that's why you need to hand this over to professionals, I'll make sure that he doesn't get away." "No you won't, I will, for the last time, he's not going anywhere! You know the specs of our facility and how much we can take out if anyone tries to force their way in here to take him." Casey interjected into the silence that followed Chuck's thinly veiled threat. "We have witnessed Chuck's interrogation capabilities, no-one else could get more out of a subject than he could, and you know as well as we do that the agencies are like a sieve, the only way to get everything out of him is Chuck's way. And I'll be manning our facility's defences to make sure he has his chance to extract everything from the subject." The General stared at the phone, in less than a minute, she'd had both her godson, and the man who'd been her most trusted agent for nearly twenty years both refuse to obey her AND threaten to wipe out anyone she sent to act on her orders, then came the clincher. "Diane, don't try to cross my son on this, he will get whatever intel there is to be extracted, and then we will handle the disposal of the subject, that's the way it's going to go, and just so you know, I'll be next to John on our defences." At that she knew that she couldn't win, especially when the two who were here for medical testing were added back into the mix. "You better know what you're doing, and you better get me the answers I need!" The only response she got was "Will do." before the link was terminated.

When Graham woke up, strapped naked to a table in an interrogation room, he started to panic, but when the Intersect walked in, he breathed a sigh of relief, because this one was much too weak to be able to do anything to him, he couldn't imagine what he thought he could do in here. He'd just taunt him for a bit and then he'd be put back in his cell, waiting for his people to get him out, the plans should already be in motion for his rescue, so he may as well have a bit of fun while he waited. Graham was unsettled when Bartowski spoke to him, as the voice and mannerisms weren't those of the petulant asset he'd had to put up with for two years, but he put that down to the fact that he was playing at being "Agent Carmichael" again. Ten minutes later though, Graham knew that this man wasn't playing at being Agent Carmichael, he WAS, and what's more, this Agent Carmichael knew far more about interrogation techniques than he should. It only took fifteen minutes for Langston Graham to start spilling what he knew, and he was being put through two, four hour interrogation sessions every day (sticking to four hours interrogation, eight hours recovery time to ensure that he would hold up for as long as they needed him). There were times that Agent Carmichael needed to break off and leave the interrogation room, because Graham would start talking about what he'd put Sarah, or Carina, his mother or other people through, and the urge to kill him would be so strong that he'd have to leave the room to stop himself.

The only time he let on to Sarah what was going on was when he asked her whether there was more to what Graham had done to her than she'd told him. Sarah looked across the room at Ellie, but she knew that she wouldn't have betrayed her confidence on this, which left only one possibility really. "You've got him?" "Yes, and he was boasting about what was done to you, both of you, I expect that he was mainly trying to goad me into killing him but I've managed to avoid that so far….. I wanted to leave the decision on what's done to him after we get everything out of him to you and Carina." She couldn't speak at first, but when she could. "I wasn't trying to hide things from you, but the details would have only hurt us more. Yes, Carina and I will appreciate a chance to have a final discussion with him. I love you." "Love you too, and I miss you, how are the tests going?" "I miss you too, the tests are nearly done, so far it looks like the babies and I are safe." "Babies?" "Yep, it looks like we're having twins and they're both fine, from what I'm being told." "That's wonderful! Wait, that is what you want isn't it?" Sarah laughed "It's not like we have any choice in the matter, but yes, I'm ecstatic that we're having twins." "I love you and can't wait to see you." "Same here sweetheart, we should be heading back tomorrow or the day after." "Can't wait!" When they hung up, Sarah headed for General Beckman's office and Chuck called Ellie. Ellie didn't stand on doctor confidentiality this time as he was just after confirmation that Sarah's results were looking good, so she could give him that much reassurance. It didn't take much for Sarah to get in to see the General, and once they had the room in secure mode she asked a tad tersely why she hadn't been advised that they had Graham in custody? The response she got back was just as terse "Because he's not in OUR custody, he's in your husband's custody, and I was advised by your husband, partner and mother-in-law, in that order, that they'd take out anyone I sent to get him! I was further advised by your mother-in-law that no-one but your husband would get to talk to him, because he will be disposed of when it's been decided that sufficient intel has been extracted from him!" The response made Sarah back off a little, as she could imagine how those discussions had gone, and expected that she would have been less than impressed to be on the receiving end of that herself, so she offered her an olive branch. "I have been advised that the decision on the disposal of the subject will rest with Carina and myself, so if you want to have words with Graham you can come back with us to you have your window before we kill him." The General looked at her for a bit and Sarah added. "We will kill him, that's not negotiable." The General actually smiled at that. "Oh I'm not questioning that, that's your right after what that monster had done to you both, it's just the way this whole thing has gone has been quite upsetting, Chuck has all but declared war on the United States at least twice now over this, and Mary and Colonel Casey joined him in that declaration the last time, having my family turn on me and our country is very upsetting." "He wasn't turning on you, he was just reacting to what was happening, because he was worried about me." "On one level that's true, yes, but it still hurt." "I'm sorry about that, all I can offer to help is for you to come back with us and have your go at him while there's a chance, if you'd like that?" The General smiled. "Yes, I would like that, thank you Sarah"

As with Decker, Chuck would get cleaned up and spend much of the time between the interrogation sessions directing the electronic efforts to get corroborative evidence for the intel or leads that came out of the interrogation sessions. He was like a man driven, functioning well enough on two or three hours' sleep a day, while the others organised themselves into shifts so that there was always at least one or two there to assist him at all times. When they had enough evidence packaged up for a given item, they'd send that through to the General to get actioned, and if the team sent in for a given mission came up empty, they'd all be taken into custody and interrogated until they'd identified the ones who had turned. While she was still a little angry at the way that Chuck (well, all of them) had handled this, they were feeding through the intel at an incredible rate and the strikes were gutting the organisation that Graham had been part of (if he didn't have total control of the organisation, he had certainly been the top dog, and he was giving up everything he knew). Even forty years of diabolical plots make for a finite amount of intel, though, and by the time that Sarah, Carina, Ellie and the General flew back to L.A. two days after Sarah's discussion with Chuck, the intel Agent Carmichael was extracting from Graham was winding down, he'd started by extracting everything he had to give on the organisation, and his connections in the government, military, intelligence community and criminal organisations, he'd also given up where he kept all his records (those were a goldmine), so by the time the others returned from D.C. they were largely down to extracting everything there was about their Chuck and Sarah's parents and what his plans had been for them, so there wasn't too much that would be missed if Sarah or Carina killed him on sight. One thing that Chuck had been compiling and that he thought Sarah and Carina would want to question Graham about themselves before they did anything permanent to him, though, was the file on Joe Blake, because Graham had dropped a bombshell about their father a couple of days before.

When the Wraith Wagon landed, Chuck ran out to lift Sarah out of the cockpit and hug her, this was the longest they'd been apart since they'd met, and co-dependent didn't even begin to describe the depth of their relationship. The mood of their reunion was dampened a little when it was revealed that while Sarah was fine, Carina would need corrective surgery before she could have children, but Carina was relatively philosophical about it, at least she knew what was in front of her now, and also what she'd have to do if she wanted to follow her sister down that path. They wanted to see Graham straight away, but Chuck prevailed on them to look at the Joe Blake files first, so that they'd have a chance to question Graham about that before he got his just deserts at either of their hands'. Sarah just stared at the screen while Carina turned to Chuck, asking "Are you fucking kidding me?" "I'm afraid not, they were originally trying to reacquire Emma when she got away from them, so they started watching Jack and Sarah in hope that they'd bring Emma back into the picture, but when they started tracing Jack's story back, they found that it had started abruptly only about eight years before Sarah was born, and that was suspicious enough for them to began digging around where his first ID had originated from and they found people who still remembered him, as well as some paperwork that had been recovered when he'd tried to destroy it, and that paperwork included the CIA credentials for Agent Joe Blake. Once they had their hands on his CIA credentials, it was a simple matter to dig out his file."

"Joe Blake had been rated as a good but erratic agent, he had quite good skills in a number of areas but he always flew by the seat of his pants, so he'd quite often screw up missions by going off plan and improvising whenever he thought he could do it easier, quicker or better than the plan, he apparently also screwed up missions because he was more interested in seducing marks or other women than he was in achieving the mission goals, so it didn't take long for him to stop getting any important missions and just get assigned to simple domestic jobs that were impossible to screw up. When that happened he apparently decided that he wasn't being treated with the respect he deserved, so he just up and left. He got himself his first non-CIA ID in Mobile, Alabama and tried to destroy his CIA and other Joe Blake paperwork before he left there. The thing was, though, the forger he went to was very cautious, so he'd had some street kids following Joe to make sure it wasn't a sting operation. When they saw him throw the papers etc into a fire drum as he passed, they ran up to knock the fire drum over before the papers were burnt, well before most of them were burnt anyway. They took everything they'd recovered back to the forger, who decided that it would be a good time to disappear for a while when he saw who he'd been dealing with, but he hung onto the paperwork in case this came back at him. When he reappeared about a year later though, he'd told some cronies the story about the CIA guy that he gave a new identity to, and it was a strange enough story that people remembered it. That was why, when the authorities started putting pressure on people, they pointed at the forger, and when they pressured him he handed over the Joe Blake paperwork, along with the details of the ID he gave him. The thing was, even though the general rule is to bring any agent that runs in to be dealt with, he'd hardly done anything important enough to make it worth their while to bring him in, but they did want Emma, so they just left him and Sarah out there as bait."

"They were also watching Sarah to see whether she developed her mother's talents, as they'd be quite interested in acquiring her if she did. What they found, though, was that Sarah had both her mother's incredible brain, as well as her father's strong physical capabilities, which meant that she had the makings to be one of the best agents there was. When they saw what potential Joe Blake's genes had when matched with women with their own capabilities they started searching for whatever other children he had, to see what other opportunities may present themselves." Chuck looked at Carina, saying "That's when you came on their radar, and Zondra, Amy and at least a dozen others. They had files on all of you…." Carina saw from the expression on Chuck's face that he'd seen what had happened to her before Graham got his hands on her, so she put her hand on his arm and told him it was history, and asked him to go on with the story. "And they kept an eye on how you were developing, some they manipulated in the direction of the agency and got to join up themselves, some, like you, were forced into joining, and others they didn't bother with. Of the ones who became part of the agency, only you four made it through training and are still alive." Sarah looked at Chuck, "I presume that you've shown all this to Zondra?" Chuck nodded, saying that Zondra said that it was their right to get anything out of Graham about this, but she did want her turn if they brought their father in to answer questions. That made Sarah and Carina look at each other, as that was a tempting idea. Another thing occurred to Sarah then and she asked whether her Mom had seen the file? Chuck nodded, saying that she was angry, but not that surprised, some of the things he'd done were similar to agents she'd dealt with, and the reasons that his missions failed were certainly familiar, too. He said that overall she seemed OK with it.

With the story of Joe Blake out of the way, Sarah asked if he'd gotten everything they needed out of Graham? Chuck said he'd like to have one more session to try and tidy up some loose ends, and pointed out that that could prime Graham better for their time with them, too, as he'd be on the edge by the end of the session? Sarah and Carina shared a look and they both nodded, so that was the plan. With that Carina went back to her apartment and Chuck and Sarah went to get some rest. As they were snuggling down in bed, Sarah chuckled, which made him ask what was so funny, she turned in his arms to kiss him and said "Oh it's not that funny I guess, but I just realised that we're both basically the result of an analyst and an agent, and was thinking that that apparently makes for a pretty good mix." "It certainly did in your case" "And your's, don't start that again!" "OK, OK" came back with a kiss. "Chuck?" "Yeah?" "What do you think our kids are going to be like?" "They're going to take after their mother and be incredible!" "What if I want them to take after their father?" "That'd be OK I s'pose." She looked at him. "OK I guess that'd be pretty good too." She kissed him with a smile and they settled down to sleep.

When they got up and went down to the Dungeon, the General had had her time to try and get answers out of Graham, but she was largely frustrated with the responses she'd gotten, when Chuck went to head back for his final session with Graham, she stopped him and asked if they could have everyone down in the Dungeon for something? He looked at her, wanting to know what she was up to, but called the others down. When they were all there, the General advised that this award ceremony would normally be conducted by the Secretary of Defense, but due to the secret nature of their team, they were stuck with her, the medals were for their actions when they broke the ring and saved the intelligence community, looking at some of the expressions in the room, she authorised them to fill in those who didn't already know about it. First she called Casey forward and read out the award and presented him with the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, then she went through Sarah, Carina, and finally Chuck with the same medal, but when he went to step away she told him to wait, then she read out the second award and presented him with the Defense Superior Service Medal as well, explaining that the case that had been used to make him the SAIC was appended to the medal paperwork, and the powers that be decided that the additional medal was due to the commander of the operation, then she made him bend down so that she could kiss him.

As she would be gone by the time he got out of the session with Graham, he sat down to talk to her for a while, going over what they'd gotten out of Decker and Graham so far, along with the corroborative evidence, and what they saw as the logical plan going forward. He also pointed out that while they had Graham and were making inroads on the organisation, they hadn't stamped it out yet, so they had to keep being careful, but with that being said, it could be time to think about letting the others go back to their lives in D.C. as they'd been stuck here for a while now. She nodded at that and said she'd talk to them about that before she left. With that, she asked how he was handling the other parts of the Intersect that he'd had to use lately? He just looked at her and said that he would have been happy to never know these things, but without them they wouldn't have had a chance of breaking Decker or Graham and for that, it was a price he was prepared to pay. She nodded at that, and asked what was going to happen to Decker? He looked her in the eye and said that no-one could leave alive after they'd been interrogated here, it would expose too much, looking away as he added that that would probably apply to Joe Blake as well. "Who's Joe Blake?" "An ex-CIA Agent who's been on the lam for nearly forty years, you know him as Jack Burton." "WHAT?" "It came out of Graham's intel, his daughters seem quite interested in bringing him in for questioning, and given what they went through because of him, I'm not inclined to refuse them the opportunity to get answers from him." At the look she was giving him, he grabbed a thumb drive and downloaded the files relating to Joe Blake's various identities and history onto it and handed it to her. When she mused "So you're both the result of an Agent - Analyst pairing, interesting." Chuck snorted, adding "That's pretty much what Sarah said last night." She nodded with a smile and stood to come over to give him a hug and a kiss, saying "Try not to sink too far into our world, you're too good to be down here with the rest of us Honey." "As I told Sarah and Mom, I'm not going to sit back and let them do all this any more, I have the ability to get more results than anyone else with what's in my head, and I'm going to step up and do my share from now on." She nodded with tears in her eyes and kissed him on the cheek again before he stood and left.

Once Chuck had headed off to the interrogation room, Sarah came into the room where she was still sitting and sat beside her, taking her hand, saying. "None of us want him to do this, but he is more effective than that rest of us, and he's convinced that what he's doing is the right thing, it may well be, but whether it is or not, you know as well as I do that he won't be turned away from doing what's right." She looked into the distance for a while. "All I know is that he still comes back as the Chuck we love, and he's managing to handle the other side of this without it pulling him apart, so I'm prepared to settle for that." The General nodded, but looked worried and asked her "Can we be sure that he'll never forget how to get back to who he is?" Sarah looked her in the eye "I'll make sure that he always knows the way home, and so will these guys (rubbing her abdomen), and his three sisters, and the rest of the family, including you, Chuck will never lose sight of who he is." The General smiled through her tears and leaned in to hug her, saying "I knew you were worth the effort."

The General had her discussions with the others and left to take her G650 back to D.C. while Agent Carmichael was having his final session with Langston Graham, as this was the last chance to get anything out of him, this session went for nearly seven hours, then he cleaned him off a little and called Sarah and Carina to say that Graham was all their's. Graham took an hour to expire at their hands, and the mess in there was a bit hard to stomach when they were done, but it was nothing compared to what he'd had them put through. While they were finishing off Graham, Agent Carmichael had the final session with Decker, first confirming that there was nothing of use left to extract, then ramped up the pain levels until his heart gave out, it was probably an easier end than he deserved, but he couldn't bring himself to do more than that to him.


	20. Recovery

**Usual disclaimer, no rights to any characters portrayed etc.**

In the weeks that followed getting rid of Graham and Decker, the team backed off from much of the Intersect team and DIA work, mainly concentrating on maintaining their Piranha clients, and recovering from the multiple hits of the trauma of the recent months. Chuck and Sarah really wished they'd had a honeymoon (they'd missed out both times), but the window they'd arranged for the honeymoon was eaten up by the initial hunt for Graham, all in all they were pretty much drained by what they'd gone through in the past few months, and so was everyone else. Stephen, Mary, Mei-Ling and Laszlo left about a week after they got rid of their other guests, but Stephen was promising that the ultra-fast transports would be ready within six months to cut the travel time to less than a quarter of the SkyCar derivatives, while the others pointed out that the travel time while using them wasn't THAT bad. The gist of what everyone was saying was that there wasn't a reason not to keep in touch and they expected to see them.

Chuck and Sarah still had to attend functions as the Carmichaels, as networking with the players was important for Piranha's business image, and Sarah was starting to show now, so the Carmichaels were making all the baby news pages (the fact that a happily glowing pregnant Sarah was, if anything, even more beautiful than she had been before and Chuck's very public shooting down of some of the famous celebrity vixens who'd made moves on him when they presumed that he'd be on the prowl like all the other men with pregnant wives made the coverage of the Carmichaels almost viral). Sarah had expected to be freaked out about being pictured all over the place with stories about the perfect couple with a family on the way, but she found that she was surprisingly comfortable with being a public figure, as a wife and a mother to be, which surprised her all the more when she factored in the fact that this meant the beginning of the end to her career as an undercover spy, and she was OK with that. When she discussed this with Chuck, he was all for their embracing the Carmichael life and working the cover, they could still do missions, but their function had become more to determine and direct the teams engaged in the activities rather than be part of the action (well, Chuck did participate in some incursions, but he usually wore a helmet and/or mask, and Sarah had stopped being an active part of those missions when it was confirmed that she was pregnant). This didn't mean that they didn't have a big workload in their Intersect team and DIA roles, they actually had a fair sized backlog that they needed to work through, but Sarah and Chuck were changing their focus from being field agents to directing operations, and given the importance of what they were doing, it was becoming more common for them to bring in elite strike teams to handle much of the direct action.

The changing and expanding nature of their operations created its own problems, though, because they were bringing military teams in to provide most of the muscle and support their activities, and the officers leading elite military teams didn't generally appreciate being told what to do by civilians, spooks, that they had no respect for (while it wasn't uncommon for at least one of them to be known and respected by members of the strike teams, that didn't usually sway the officers' opinions), and they quite often pushed back against their orders, creating problems. The only one who didn't have the problem to the same degree was Casey, because they respected his rank in the Marines. The powers that be knew of the momentous achievements of this group, and could see from the results of their operations so far that the rewards that could be reaped from this new direction were potentially game changing, so after considerable debate on the matter, they decided that all the team really needed to hold senior military ranks to give them the authority needed to command the respect of the military forces that were seconded into the team's operations. Therefore, after closed door sessions with the Director of National Intelligence, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chief of Naval Operations, Chief of Staff of the Army, Commandant of the Marine Corps, Chief of Staff of the Air Force and the Commander, Naval Special Warfare Command (given Chuck's history with the SEALs) and considerable deliberation, Casey was promoted to a full Colonel in the Marines, Chuck was commissioned as a Captain in the Navy SEALs (it was hardly surprising how easily this was pushed through when the SEAL Commander was the senior sabre bearer for the sabre arch at their wedding), and Sarah was also commissioned as a Captain in the Navy, while Carina, Zondra and Ellie were commissioned as Commanders in the Navy (as Carina and Zondra needed to be able to lead joint missions too, and Ellie needed the authority to make the people brought in listen to her), and Jeff and Anna were commissioned as Lieutenants in the Navy (as they all needed access to the military facilities for the joint operations to do their part). They were all Navy for two reasons, the first was that it was more logical for the organisational structure to be under one umbrella, rather than spread across the corps (Casey being seconded into a Navy operation was easily explainable), and perhaps more importantly, as well as Chuck and Ellie's reputations with the military command and Chuck's history and reputation with the SEALs, Sarah, Carina and Zondra had all worked with SAD and SEAL teams quite a bit over their careers, and they were also held in high regard by those who knew them, so the Chief of Naval Operations had numerous people that he respected (from the SEAL Commander and others of his rank down) supporting these people, and that made it easier for him to sell the idea to the the Secretary of the Navy. Casey had grumbled good naturedly about the fact that that Chuck and Sarah had effectively entered the military at the same level that he'd fought his way up to with over a quarter of a century of effort, but he didn't begrudge them their status, they DID plan and command nearly all of the momentous operations that they were involved in with, and Casey had been one of the ones who had argued that they needed to have military rank to allow them to command the forces that were involved in their operations.

The bigger shock, though, was when Chuck, Sarah, Casey, Carina and Zondra were all awarded the Navy Cross, along with the Silver Star Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, Navy and Marine Corps Medal, Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart (with the appropriate Combat "V" and stars for the number of awards on each) after Chuck, Sarah, Carina, Zondra and Ellie were awarded their Navy commissions. In addition to this, Anna was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps, Bronze Star, Defense Meritorious Service and Meritorious Service Medals (with oak leaf clusters or stars for the number of awards added on each), Jeff was awarded the Bronze Star, Defense Meritorious Service and Meritorious Service Medals (with oak leaf clusters or stars for the number of awards added on each), Ellie was awarded the Defense Distinguished Service and Defense Superior Service Medals in recognition for what she'd achieved in joint operations both inside and outside of the team and the Navy Distinguished Service, Distinguished Service, Bronze Star and National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medals (with oak leaf clusters or stars for the number of awards added on each), Chuck was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Air Force Cross and the Navy Distinguished Service, Distinguished Service and National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medals, Casey was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Air Force Cross, and Sarah was awarded the the Distinguished Service Cross and the Defense Superior Service Medal and Zondra was awarded the Defense Distinguished Service Medal in recognition for what she'd achieved in joint operations both inside and outside of the team, while their previous medals were re-issued in their new capacities (with oak leaf clusters for the number of awards added where appropriate) so that they could wear them publicly. As well as this, they could all wear the Joint Meritorious Unit Award ribbon (with oak leaf clusters for the number of awards added). Like their commissions, their new medals were based on the released details of their missions, along with the operations that they'd conducted with SEAL, Marine and Special Operations groups. Sanitised versions of all their mission and operations reports and recordings were made available to the heads of the US military corps in the closed door sessions as justification when they were debating the validity of awarding them commissions. (The General also went the extra step of advising them that Charles Carmichael was, in fact, Agent John Smith and Eleanor Van Der Graaf was Agent Susan Jones (names that they all knew) and that they were brother and sister, it took them a bit to get past the fact that these young people had been delivering much of the intel analysis and strategic planning that had guided the United States' military for over seventeen years now, ever since he was thirteen and she was sixteen in fact (most of these men had been relying on their abilities for much of that period to triumph over the obstacles in front of them, and they were honest and intelligent enough to acknowledge that their primary failures in that time had been when they had chosen (or were forced) to deviate from the directions they'd laid out), when it was revealed by the SEAL Commander that on top of that, Chuck was also the boy who was still talked about as Mowgli by the Navy SEALs and Army Special Forces, they started wondering just what he was, as this was no ordinary mortal. The fact that his wife was the legendary Sarah Walker, who'd been known as Director Graham's Wildcard Enforcer and the Ice Queen, just made this all the more surreal. Colonel Casey and the other two were notable in their own right, but the Carmichaels and Van Der Graaf were definitely larger than life.) Even with that, the assembled heads had been amazed by what this small group had accomplished and endured, individually and as a group, in the service of their country, so they'd agreed on what medals would be most appropriate for them and portray the best impression of who they were and the bulk of the medals had been awarded by the Navy, as all they were all were under the Navy's umbrella. A large part of the reasoning for awarding the medals was to strengthen their authority when they were commanding joint operations (military groups are generally more willing to follow decorated heroes than paper pushers who hadn't seen action, and people in these circles could read the story of their medals and recognise what they represented, heroes who had seen a lot of action and had achieved far more besides), but it was at least partly because they wanted to see them get some tangible recognition for what they'd done. So now their wardrobes had to include the requisite sets of dress and service uniforms for Navy Captains, Commanders and Lieutenants with the medals and ribbons for the medals they'd been awarded, and Casey had to update his uniforms as well.

They did have to admit that things went rather more smoothly when they were addressing military groups as Captain Charles Carmichael USN, Captain Sarah Carmichael USN, Commander Carina Miller USN, Commander Zondra Rizzo USN and Commander Eleanor Van Der Graaf USN than when they'd been doing it as Special Agents, Casey's status as Colonel John Casey USMC had no trouble retaining its authority. It was fun watching Auntie D's trying to hide her glee when she required them to all attend meetings with the old school Generals and Admirals in full uniform, as given that the heads of all the US military corps and the secretaries that they reported to had ratified that the team had earned everything that had been bestowed upon them before they'd approved it, any questions about the validity of their credentials by other parties were quickly shot down by their own bosses, and those Generals and Admirals were forced to grudgingly accept Chuck's and the team's authority to direct the joint operations, something the General greatly enjoyed rubbing their noses in after being pushed around by old men like this for most of her career. She also had fun when they'd get snarky about pretending not to understand which Captain Carmichael it was who was being referred to, as there seemed to be too many of them, so she'd apologise and from that point refer to Captain CHARLES Carmichael or Captain SARAH Carmichael when she was advising who would be directing the operations, or if she feeling really snippy, she'd refer to Sarah as "the pregnant one" as it infuriated many of the old school that their units were being directed by a pregnant woman.

The fact that Chuck needed less sleep than Sarah even before she was pregnant made it easy for him to get extra work in at night, as he'd usually slip out of bed and through to the workroom (via the connecting door) to put in at least a few hours every night. Sometimes Sarah would wake and come to drag him back to bed, but most nights he'd slip out, work on the backlog for a few hours (or more) and slip back into bed without waking her. The picture wall in the workroom was a lot fuller now, as they had their wedding pictures (including both versions of the SEALs' sabre arch), the award certificates for their commissions and medals and the pictures of them being awarded their commissions and medals up there, too, as well as both of their Navy dress swords hanging above. Some time after the twins were born they were going to have to decide whether to take them down and put them away, or leave them up and explain them to the kids when they were old enough, they hadn't had the time to sit down and discuss that yet, but it hadn't been a priority because realistically they had at least twelve months before it even started to become an issue.

When he was taking a break one night to mull over the way forward on a particular issue, he was looking at their wedding pictures and thinking about the reason that they had two versions of the arch of sabres pictures. They'd gone back to apologise to the owners of the estate, explain that it had been a rogue operation by an unhinged member of the CIA, and ensure that everything was restored to the way it was before the CIA's LAV smashed through the gate and the fire fights raged around the chapel (The General had enjoyed making a point of paying for all the restorations out of the CIA's budgets). The SEAL commander had been there supervising the investigation into the incident at the site when they went back, and he reminded them that Chuck had technically been out of uniform for the Sabre arch (because he wasn't actually commissioned at that point), so they reconvened with the people in the picture (including all the sabre bearers) to re-shoot those pictures with Chuck in his Captain's dress whites, complete with medals, and Casey, Bry and Jeff in their (Marine, Army Special Forces and Navy respectively) dress uniforms with medals as well, luckily Sarah still fitted into her Vera Wang wedding gown, though it was a little snug around the waist. While the new pics were the "proper" ones for the arch of sabres, they kept both versions up beside each other here, though downstairs in their offices they only had the uniformed arch of sabres pics or the original tuxedo pics at the alter.

Chuck was still working through the intel on Graham's organisation, following up on what he'd extracted from Graham and the files that they'd discovered from those leads. The major centres had been taken out in the first few weeks after they got Graham, but it was a large and complex organisation, so there were still far more sites and groups to be taken down yet. That was what he was chasing up most nights and organising further strikes on the basis of the intel he extracted. He usually talked to Auntie D about what the next actions would be with the latest batch of intel (she called when she got up in D.C.) before he slipped back into bed with Sarah. Sarah knew that he was usually working through the night and it didn't generally bother her as long as he was there when she woke, but that was changing as her pregnancy progressed.

The slow down helped them get back on top of things, they'd completed the Rosenbaum International contract ahead of time and to the satisfaction of the clients, and the rave reviews from them had brought them the expected spike in prospective clients. The change in procedures that they'd implemented for missions was working fine, Chuck and Sarah would attend functions as the Carmichaels, and they'd use the Intersect and Sarah's superior ability to pick out the most subtle nuances in the room to identify the targets, then act as conductors to direct Casey, Carina and Zondra (and anyone else seconded into the team for the given mission) to collect the mission objective and exit without causing a stir. Their batting average hadn't slipped on the "overt" missions, and with the extra resources brought into cover for Sarah being out of rotation for an active role in dangerous missions, it hadn't slipped on on their covert missions either. Sarah was starting to get worried about Chuck going into those scenarios without her, but so far Carina and Zondra were managing to calm her fears by assuring her that they were watching out for him. The pregnancy hadn't effected Sarah's ability to pick the intel apart and plan the operations though, and the SAD and other strike teams had no issues now with taking direction from Shanti (on the joint missions they used call-signs from the Jungle book (obviously based on Chuck's Mowgli nickname, which he'd retained), so Chuck was Mowgli, Sarah Shanti, Casey Baloo, Zondra Bagheera and Carina Raksha). Where possible, Chuck worked with Sarah on directing these missions and operations, only going in without her if his particular skillsets (the Intersect or computers) were needed or they needed extra manpower.

Sarah, Carina, and to a lesser degree Zondra, were having the hardest time dealing with what had come out over the past couple of months, because they'd been hit with a hell of a lot, they had each other, and the family, and Chuck was with Sarah nearly every waking moment, but no-one else could stop what was roiling in their heads, much though they wished they could. All Chuck and the others could do was give love and be there when they needed them. Chuck was actually surprised that what he did to Graham and Decker didn't bother him more than it did, but he'd seen all too clearly what they were when he'd pulled their heads apart in the interrogations, and that alleviated any guilt he may have felt in regard to what he'd done to them.

Stephen and Laszlo delivered the next piece of gear less than a month after they went back to D.C. when the SkyVan arrived, and it took over from the SkyTruck as their general transport as it was smaller and handier and fitted on the roof garden easier. Not too long after that, the SkyTruck came back over carrying a sleek and sexy little 2+2 convertible, a rather sleek and stylish four door, four seat luxury sedan and a similarly sleek and stylish minivan/limo that would take seven comfortably or eight at a pitch, plus the bike variant of the technology. The convertible had been intended for Sarah anyway, but she claimed it before it was even unloaded from the SkyTruck (she hadn't managed to replace her Porsche after Amy blew it up and the convertible was perfect). They all tried out all the machines and were impressed, Casey was happy to stick with the minivan, and Chuck, Emma and Ellie wouldn't mind one either, Chuck, Zondra, Carina and Anna wanted the bike, all the girls wanted the convertible, and Chuck, Ellie, Emma and Jeff wanted the sedan. Stephen agreed that they'd deliver six of the convertibles and four each of the rest as soon as they had time to get them built.

To take their minds off things, Chuck and Sarah spent a fair bit of time talking about baby names for the pair who were steadily making themselves more apparent. Given that they knew that Sarah was having fraternal twins, they were trying to agree on a boy's name and a girl's name. They went through the usual phase of considering family names, but these were mostly rejected by both of them, and it was getting to the point of being frustrating when Sarah suddenly looked up with a smile "Charlotte and Samuel?" Chuck grinned, saying "Perfect!" Sarah relaxed a little, as this had been stressing both of them, but added with a frown "Now we just need to decide their middle names." With the stress of the primary decision out of the way, Chuck's thought processes were going more smoothly now. "How about your mother's name for Charlotte, and dad's name for Samuel?" Sarah smiled back at him "That works, Charlotte Emmaline Bartowski and Samuel Stephen Bartowski, I like it!" Chuck smiled and kissed her, adding "Or Charlotte Emmaline Carmichael and Samuel Stephen Carmichael when we're living the cover, doesn't sound quite as nice, but it still works." Sarah agreed as she kissed him, then looked down as she rubbed her belly, asking "So what do you guys think? Do you like your names?" When that was answered with a flurry of kicks, it set Sarah and Chuck's laughter off, and Sarah said "It looks like they agree" as she kissed Chuck again.

 **A/N: Sorry, this one's a bit of a filler as I got bogged down with it, hopefully things will be back to speed after this.**


	21. Captains Courageous

**First up, an apology to anyone who read the early version of the previous chapter, when I started on this one I realised that I'd left structure holes big enough to drive a truck through, so I've revised it, Ellie has been added as a Navy Commander and Jeff and Anna were added as navy Lieutenants with a few (non combat) medals, because they needed to be military for similar reasons to the others, and the others' medals got extended a little.**

 **NB: In case I didn't make my point too well last chapter, the reason for the commissions and the medals is that, IMHO and from what I've seen, combat hardened elite military types wouldn't generally be prepared to follow civilians without battle experience into the type of operations that the team was running. For that reason, they were given the ranks and medals that their experience and achievements justified, and which would hopefully be what was needed to give other military types the confidence to follow them.**

 **In response to the question in the guest review, no, IMO Morgan wasn't really a friend at all, he constantly undermined Chuck, letched on Sarah (and Ellie), as well as using any excuse to try and touch them, and his every action was predicated on what he could get out of it, if a "friend" ever did to me what he did to Chuck in Versus The Crown Vic or Versus The Anniversary (just to name two episodes) I'd kick him so hard he'd never come down. He didn't keep Chuck sane, he was part of the reason that Chuck was so screwed up, that's my reading of watching the episodes closely many times.**

 **Sorry, I'm not going to spread my dialogues out over several pages to separate them, that just doesn't look right or work for me. To me an intense back and forth dialogue "feels" better depicted the way I have it, not that I have that many of them. If I lose readers over that, I'll just have to take it on the chin. FWIW**

 **The rating on this one's up as it contains rather unpleasant topics.**

 **Usual disclaimer, no rights to any characters portrayed.**

Chuck and Sarah tried to do a proper job of returning the snappy salutes they received with the greetings "Captain Carmichael, Sir!" and "Captain Carmichael, Ma'am!", but they were still struggling to get used to the uniforms, salutes, the whole military protocol thing. At first, some of Sarah's uniforms were too tight, her skirts were too short and her heels were too high to comply with the uniform regulations, but she was dialling it back with the requisite uniform changes as her pregnancy progressed, she'd just wanted to have a little fun pushing the limits for as long as she could. For that matter, the fit of Chuck's uniforms were too snug and tailored to comply with uniform regulations as well, but his suit tailor could be temperamental, and he was just too good a tailor to risk upsetting him by forcing him to work strictly to the regulations. (They were, quite frankly, amazed that Carina, Zondra and Anna (mainly Carina) hadn't flaunted the uniform regulations even more than Sarah had so, as with Chuck's tailor, they decided to let it go as their uniforms were close enough.)

As they had to deal with the various branches of the military (along with the intelligence community) while organising and running these joint operations, and it wouldn't do to bring them to a secret base under the offices of their cover business, they'd been allocated a suite of offices in a secure area of the Los Angeles Air Force Base (the LA AFB was the only active military facility in LA for them to use for this), along with a small staff. Their group had been named the Joint Operations Command, and some at LA AFB questioned that none of the senior officers were there much of the time, but they couldn't deny that when they were there, the place was a hive of activity, with representatives of the Army, Navy, Marines Air Force and Coast Guard (and dodgy types from the three letter agencies) coming and going at all hours. The fact that this group was very top heavy with a two star Air Force General, two Navy Captains, a USMC Colonel and three Navy Commanders was noted, as was the fact that these senior (and flag) officers didn't seem to have much of a support structure under them, the General had a Major for an assistant while the Navy Captains seemed to have two Lieutenants supporting them (though they obviously had other roles too) and the Marine Colonel had a Marine First Lieutenant for an assistant (while Josie wasn't included in the first round, as soon as they set up the offices at LA AFB they'd realised that she needed to be part of the military to be with the group there, so they'd arranged for her to be commissioned into the Marines as a First Lieutenant), but their remaining staff was only about a dozen seamen and petty officers with an Ensign and a Warrant Officer to manage them running the offices, all in all this was a very strange group by US military standards. The badges and ribbons they wore on their uniforms were part of the quandary, all the Naval officers (and most of their staff) wore Information Dominance Warfare insignia, and one Naval Captain added the Naval Aviator insignia, Combat Action Badge, Naval Parachutist insignia and the Special Warfare insignia to that, while the other Naval Captain and two of the Naval Commanders added the Naval Aviator, Combat Action Badge and Naval Parachutist insignia, and the Marine Colonel wore the Naval Aviator insignia, Combat Action Badge, Naval Parachutist insignia and Combatant Diver insignia (these five also had Combat Action Ribbons, Expert Marksman ribbons for pistol and rifle and Expeditionary medals). These people seemed to be a weird mix of information warfare, aviation and combat that didn't fit into any normal military groups.

When they called the operation team leads together for the briefings, there was usually at least one or two there who knew some of the team (if not all) because they'd all been in the business and working with special ops groups for over ten years or more, so there were more than a few questioning (and jealous) looks at the warm greetings between old comrades when operations were convened. The conference room that they generally used had pictures up around the walls from all of their pasts showing them with various special forces groups (including Ellie when she was doing her special ops training and the more observant ones noted that Casey was present in most of the pictures with Chuck and Ellie, as he'd been with them on their special ops training sessions, and was part of most of Chuck's ops with the Army, Navy, Marines or Air Force) the purpose of this was to reinforce the message that their medals were telling, that this team had the experience to lead these operations. The medals and the pictures worked with the ones who cared (and were bright enough) to pay attention, and the Joint Meritorious Unit Award ribbon with oak leaf clusters that they all wore told the story that this was a highly successful unit, and had been for some time, but any group that was engaged for operations included at least one or two who thought that they were god's gift to the world, and especially to women, and they would invariably focus on nothing but the women in the room.

The ones who knew the team members were usually waiting for the douches to start trying to hit on or make comments about Sarah (Carina, Zondra and Ellie were beautiful, too, but it was invariably Sarah who caught their eye first, even when her pregnancy started to show) before they pointed out the obvious, that there were two Captain Carmichaels there, and while Captain Charles Carmichael may not have quite as many decorations for valour as the Colonel, he'd earned the reputation that had made him a legend in special ops circles. If the douches didn't back down or switched to target the other women after that, they figured that they deserved whatever happened to them (they didn't bother pointing out that the three Commanders were also immediate family to the Carmichaels or that there were at least five people in that group who were quite capable of decimating anyone they came up against).

The re-imaging of the team into a military command had made their operations a lot smoother and saved a lot of wasted time, which improved the effectiveness of the unit, but it didn't take away their other responsibilities, running Piranha Security & Technology as an successful business, delivering the Intersect Team's other responsibilities and delivering the DCS team's objectives (though the DCS team was under the umbrella of the Joint Operations Command now and half of the Intersect team work was handled as part of JOC as well, so that alleviated some of the load). Most of them spent at least three or four days a week based out of the Fish Palace (they were working six or seven days a week), so they were only spending two or three days a week in the JOC offices.

Over the past three to four weeks, Chuck had been doing a lot of "business" trips on his own, and as Sarah knew that there was no chance that he was playing around on her, she enlisted Jeff and Anna's help to find out what he was actually doing. It took them nearly a week to come up with something which looked like it may be related, and when they did it was a shock. There was a new serial killer on a killing spree who was being called Vlad the Impaler (because he impaled his victims in a very specific way on stakes), and the location and probable day and time of his (presumably) kills was a disturbingly close match to that of Chuck's "business" trips. They followed this for another couple of weeks, and it was becoming more and more obvious that Chuck was Vlad, but they couldn't understand why the sweet and gentle man that they knew was doing this, until the count had almost reached forty and the face of one of the victims brought back very traumatic memories for Sarah of what had been done to her fourteen years ago. She asked Jeff and Anna to dig out everything that was known about all the victims (making a point of asking them to search through the CIA records) and brought Carina into it at that point. It was making sense to her now why all Vlad's victims were male, in their early thirties to late sixties, and little was known about them publicly, because most of them were, or had been, involved in hardcore porn or the intelligence community. When they looked at earlier pictures of the victims, Sarah or Carina recognised most of them, and more than a few of their faces were familiar to both of them. Chuck had obviously extracted who had been involved in what was done to them out of Graham and Decker, and was going after all of them.

While Sarah was could understand why Chuck would do this for her, and Carina, it had to stop, so she compiled a file of the pictures of Vlad's victims, and when he got home one night, she threw the file on the table so that the pictures sprayed across the surface, asking "Are you about done yet?" He looked at the pictures before calmly looking back at her and saying "No, there are at least fifteen to twenty left on that list yet, and something much worse has come up now." She looked at him, and accepting that she wasn't going to be able to stop him, asked what had come up, but his response was to call Casey, Carina, Zondra, Jeff and Anna to meet them in the Dungeon for a briefing.

When they were in the conference room and it was locked down so that Emma, Ellie, Josie and Molly couldn't see or hear anything that went on in the room, Chuck started explaining what had happened to Sarah and Carina when they were at the Farm, what he had been doing as Vlad, and what had come out while he was tracking these men down. Obviously the ones who were involved in what was done to Sarah, Carina and untold others had seen opportunities in this, because they'd extended it into a much bigger and more profitable undertaking, apparently sick bastards would spend a fortune to watch things being done or do things to defenceless women, and these bastards were maintaining a portfolio of hundreds of young women (down to pre-teens) that they used to put on their shows. Obviously some of the ones involved in this had been part of the Ring at one time, as they were using the drug (which wasn't on the books for legitimate agencies) that Shaw had been given by them to use on Sarah to control the victims (it took the majority of control of their bodies away from the victims, so they couldn't fight back much), as well as variants of the twilight dart drug to prevent them from remembering what had happened to them. The shows were ramped up over time with the victims so that they could milk the most money from it, in the early stages the twilight drugs were enough to ensure that they didn't remember anything, but the time frames were accelerated as the shows got rougher and more invasive so the effects couldn't be covered up, until they were sold off as sex slaves or used in snuff films. (Chuck made sure that the pictures and videos he showed them were only of the early stages, the nightmares he was having about this were bad enough, he didn't want Sarah or Carina (or the others for that matter) seeing that.)

As the shows progressed, the fees charged went up, and they were charging six to seven figure sums to buy the girls, commission a snuff film or be involved in the later action (Chuck was still putting this together as he'd only found evidence of this when he flashed on something a few days ago). After he'd shown them what they were up against, he told them what he was planning to do, take out everyone who was actively involved, grab all the funds of those involved on either side (there were billions of dollars involved in this and it needed to be out of their hands to stop what they were doing with it), and turn the lesser players over the authorities with enough evidence to ensure that they could be prosecuted. The others sat there, shell shocked about what they'd seen and heard, but Jeff had the only question. "What do you mean by take out everyone who's actively involved?" Chuck just looked at him for about thirty seconds before he responded. "Vlad the Impaler will be the most prolific serial killer in history." Jeff blanched at that, but everyone else around the table nodded, and after a short delay, looking at what was on the screen, so did he. After that, Chuck asked "Who's in?" and Casey looked around the table, getting agreement before he turned back to Chuck and said "We all are!"

As they'd started moving on those involved, it became quickly apparent to the authorities that Vlad the Impaler had to be more than one man, as some days dozens of victims were turning up all over the world (Chuck, Casey, Carina, Zondra and Anna were working as a team on this, with Sarah and Jeff providing support from the Fish Palace), while in the background, Chuck, Anna and Jeff were putting all the time they could into collating the evidence and removing the liquid assets of everyone involved. Their top priority was recovering any girls who had been taken or sold, and doing what they could to help them recover (along with the ones who hadn't been taken yet but were having problems), but giving them large amounts of money didn't help them (except for the ones who needed new lives to start over again, away from anyone who knew what had happened to them), as it would probably draw attention to them and what had happened to them. They did provide funding for a lot of the programs that were being used for the girls' recovery around the world, so that they could get the best care without any need to pay for it. Over the space of a month, Vlad the Impaler's kill count went well into the hundreds, and the authorities received reams of evidence that was quite sufficient to convict thousands on child pornography and sex charges around the world (though hundreds of them were already victims of Vlad, so they had been properly punished). The authorities couldn't understand why the ones on the lists were turning themselves in and confessing, until they found out about the untraceable messages many of them were getting, in various languages the gist of the message was "The authorities or me, your choice, Vlad". There was quite a bit of public outcry about how vigilante killers couldn't be allowed get away with massacring hundreds, but they'd sent less graphic and gruesome versions of the information they'd sent to the authorities to the media, so the ones demanding that those who made up Vlad the Impaler be hunted down and brought to justice were shouted down and put under public scrutiny, as people asked how they could be against monsters like that getting their just deserts? Afterwards, they had arguments with Auntie D about what they'd done, until they showed her enough photo and video evidence to make her speechless with horror, and they didn't speak of it again.

After they'd wound up the Vlad requirements, they went back to their normal lives of Piranha, the Intersect Team and JOC work, they were getting used to the uniforms (the girls settled on trousers most of the time as being more practical after they'd had their fun winding up the guys who came in) and military protocols in the JOC offices and other military facilities, and their staff in the JOC office were getting up to speed to provide the equivalent of DIA analyst functions to support the team. They'd laid out the JOC offices similar to the Piranha offices, Chuck and Sarah had their offices next to each other, with Casey's beside Sarah's and Ellie, Carina and Zondra's offices were opposite them. Anna, Jeff and Josie's (and the General's assistant's) smaller offices were down the hall near the rating's area, while Auntie D's larger office was on the other side of Chuck's, near the primary conference room (she was usually on the East Coast, but as the group's nominal Flag Officer, her office had to reflect her position, so they used it for their team meetings when they needed to conference her in, as they had full video conferencing facilities in there). The only wedding pics that Chuck and Sarah had in their JOC offices were the "proper" arch of sabres pics, because there they were the only ones that fitted into this environment.

Sarah, Carina, Zondra and Ellie still had to deal with some of the tools who were brought in for the joint exercises, but minor damage and/or a pistol to the head or privates was usually enough to put paid to their bullshit, if not Chuck or Casey got their chance to go postal on them (they let the girls deal with the matter themselves until they were given leave to step in out of respect for them, because they didn't want to undermine them by giving the impression that they couldn't handle it themselves, but as soon as the leash was slipped they went to town, especially Chuck if it was Sarah or Ellie who was being hassled). If, after all that, the tools still didn't get the message, a call to the head of their command, or failing that their corps or agency (Chuck had them all on speed dial and the people at the other end of the call knew who he was) would have them recalled to be replaced in a matter of minutes. The few times it got to that point, the rest of the team leads would be staring at the idiots, shaking their heads, because they'd watched them being given every chance and they'd still thrown their careers away. There were also the other idiots, the ones who refused to believe that someone as young as Chuck or Sarah could have reached the rank of Navy Captain or earned the medals they had (they, along with Casey, were the most decorated people in the room), even though they'd been told by the top brass down of their corps that these people were the real deal, and most of the special ops veterans of the various corps had stories of how many records Chuck (as Mowgli) had set in all their trainings as a teenager, or the operations they'd done with both of them (and the others), which happened to be where they'd won half their medals. These ones were also replaced with a phone call to however high it took, which just proved how powerful these people were to anyone who stopped to think.

Over the following months, the operations that the team ran were amazingly successful, so much so that all joint operations that involved multiple corps and other federal agencies were allocated to them, not just the ones that were generated out of the intel that they uncovered. Because of this, their workload went up so that they were spending three to four days a week based at the JOC offices and three to four days a week at the Piranha offices, and it got harder when Sarah had to go on maternity leave with the twins. Once Sarah had to start working from home (she never stopped working, only coming into the JOC office due to her mobility issues), Uncle Bry was brought in to take up the slack, so in a similar deal to the rest of the team, his rank was taken from Captain to Colonel in the Army, and he was retroactively awarded the medals he deserved to add to his existing credibility (of course, that meant that they had to photoshop his image in all the arch of sabres pics to show his new rank and medals, but that wasn't too hard for them). When Bry was brought on board, and they were called to D.C. for his promotion ceremony (being able to fly door to door with the Wraith Van made it easier for Sarah), they had a second ceremony as they'd also promoted Ellie to Captain (from observation by the powers that be, it had been decided that she deserved the higher rank, and that it would cement her authority better, given that she had to take over more of the functions that Sarah had done with the JOC). Chuck joked that Uncle Bry's addition and Ellie's promotion made the group even more top heavy now than it had been before, and he didn't miss the smirk that Auntie D gave him at that, she was up to something, he just wasn't sure what.

As Sarah was getting closer to her due date, Chuck pushed back on the number of operations that they wanted the team to take on, because he wasn't going to miss being there for his wife at the birth of his children, or when she needed him, and the rest of the team were family, too, the aunts and everyone else weren't about to miss being there either. After weighing up the various options, they'd set up everything that could possibly be needed in the SkyTruck and had a full team of agency approved medical personnel on standby, when the time came she'd be picked up and flown to the medical team as fast as possible, and if Chuck wasn't with her when she was picked up, he'd fly there in the Wraith Wagon, as it would be where he was if he wasn't with her. When the day came, it all went fairly well, Sarah was on the roof of the hospital where the Agency doctors were in the Wraith Truck with plenty of time to spare, it took ten and a half hours' labour for Charlotte and another half hour for Samuel (not too bad for a first birth with twins) and both they and Sarah were fine, though Dad of course was a wreck. Stephen and Mary and Auntie D had flown in when they knew the day was getting close, and Auntie D had been working out of her office in the JOC since she'd arrived (as she wasn't about to miss the birth of her godson's children, she'd held Chuck the day he was born, and she was determined to do the same with Charlotte and Samuel).

When they were born, Charlotte and Samuel obviously took after their parents, Charlotte had her mother's blonde hair (as much as she had) and blue eyes, while Samuel had his father's brown hair and eyes, but from what they could see at that early stage, both had their mother's features (which made Daddy ecstatic) and their father's curls (which Mommy was just as happy about). Emma and Stephen were both choked up when they heard that their grandchildren had their names (middle names were fine, and flipping Chuck and Sarah's names for their first names was brilliant). Chuck was even more sure that Auntie D was up to something when he saw her whispering something to Sarah, as Sarah's shocked look went from her, to him and back again, and then she'd laughed and hugged her after they'd said a few more words. Once Sarah and the twins were cleared by the doctors (including Ellie), they were flown back to the Fish Palace and settled down in the master bedroom, while a team of technicians dismantled the equipment that was installed in the Wraith Truck and re-installed it down in the Dungeon (just in case it was needed).

Over the next four or five months, Sarah worked from home, either in their apartment, or with the twins in her office downstairs. After working together every day for so long, the six months that Sarah was off on maternity leave was getting to Chuck, because he really missed not being able to see her whenever he wanted (as well as not being able to see the twins whenever he wanted) on the days he had to be in the JOC office without them, so when Ellie (as the family doctor) agreed that it would be OK for Sarah to come back to work at the JOC office (with the twins in her office like they were in the Piranha office), Chuck was ecstatic.

While the JOC operations were a great success and the powers that be were happy with their achievements (so much so that their staff had been more than doubled in the Information Dominance area and Anna and Jeff were both promoted to Lieutenant-Commanders to manage that side of things), they were having recurring problems with some Marine, Army and Air Force Colonels who had issues with submitting to the authority of people who were only at the same level as them, especially ones as young as Chuck. For that reason, the decision had been made that Auntie D would hand over command of the group to a new Flag Officer, who would be located in the JOC offices to bring the Colonels etc into line, while her role with the group was formalised into what it had always been in reality, the liaison between the JOC and other bodies. Therefore, her office was in the process of being refitted for the new Flag Officer who was taking over the team, but no-one was being told who they were yet, and Chuck was a little aggravated that they were putting all this work into this new officer's offices, but nothing was being done about setting up Sarah's new office yet (as Bry had taken over Sarah's office when she went on maternity leave).

As a result, Chuck was a little out of sorts when the team were summoned to D.C. for their new Flag Officer's induction into the role of Commander, Joint Operations Command. What he couldn't work out was why Sarah was happy, but he just put that down to the fact that they were getting out as a family for once. As far as he knew, Emma and Molly came along so that Emma could look after the twins while he and Sarah were tied up with the ceremony. At least the trip was comfortable, the Wraith Van got them around everywhere now and they didn't have to worry about getting in and out of airports, it was an easy point to point hop (at about twice the speed of most commercial flights).

When they got there though, Chuck was starting to twig to the fact that something was up, because looking around the room, the only Flag officers that he could see were the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Chief of Naval Operations, Chief of Staff of the Army, Commandant of the Marine Corps, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, the Commander in Chief, Special Operations Command, the Commander of the US Cyber Command (sort of their boss on two fronts, via the Information Dominance Corps and the NSA), the Director of the DIA, the Commander, Special Operations Center, Pacific Command, the Commander, Naval Special Warfare Command and Auntie D, and obviously none of them would be taking over JOC, and the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Navy, the Director of National Intelligence, and his parents were all there as well. Chuck looked at Sarah and knew that she was in on whatever was going on here, because her eyes were shining and her smile lit up the room, so he turned to her, putting his arm around her to pull her in and quietly ask in her ear "Where is our new Flag Officer Honey?" "Ah, that would be you, Sweetie." He stepped back to look at her "WHAT?" Nearly everyone in the room turned to look at him at his exclamation, and half of them were smiling and snickering.

One of the skills that he'd acquired from the Intersect was the exceptional ability to lip read (in multiple languages), so he easily picked up the discussion between the SECNAV and the Chief of Naval Operations out of the corner of his eye. "What is the man of the hour going on about?" The Admiral smiled. "I'm guessing, mister secretary, that his wife just told him that he IS the man of the hour." The SECNAV looked at him in shock. "Are you telling me that he didn't know?" Another smile. "No, General Beckman thought it would be better, well more fun, to just tell him and the team that they were coming to meet their new Flag Officer who's taking over the team, and we (waving around the other military people present) agreed." He looked over at Chuck before adding "It looks like we were right" with another smile, but his look turned serious as he turned back to the SECNAV and added "As you're well aware, mister secretary, the circumstances here don't fit into any normal frameworks, and that young man has been doing great things for the country and shouldering responsibilities way beyond his years since he was barely in his teens, so we didn't see the harm in making his promotion ceremony a little unconventional here" that got a nod from the secretary and they turned away. Looking around he could see that similar conversations had obviously just taken place between the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense and others. Chuck looked accusingly back at Sarah and she gave him that cute li'l apologetic smile that always made him melt so he gave up, making a half hearted attempt at growling "This isn't over" in her ear though, thinking back, he realised that he did know when Auntie D had told her about this, that time she was whispering to her just after Charlotte and Samuel were born.

When things had settled down, Captain Charles Carmichael was called up to be promoted to Rear Admiral (lower half) Charles Carmichael and have his induction into his new role of Commander, Joint Operations Command by the Secretary of the Navy in front of the small but very prestigious group of military and intelligence officials, and his family. Sarah took the chance between the promotion and induction to replace the jacket that had his Captain's insignias with one that she'd had their suit tailor make up with the proper accoutrements for his new rank (adorned with all the proper medals, ribbons and badges, of course), so the pictures taken for his induction showed him in the proper uniform. Of course, the surprises didn't finish there, because once Chuck was done, Emma was called up to be commissioned as a Commander in the Navy (to act as his assistant and expand the Information Dominance force of the JOC).

Considering the officials present, the ceremonies and the celebratory dinner that followed were remarkably casual, friendly affairs. The assembled VIPs looked at the people who made up this important (well, world changing) group and tried to get their heads around who they really were, starting with Captain Carmichael (at least there was only one of them now), looking at the incredibly beautiful woman sitting with her baby in her lap, it was hard to believe that she was by far the most dangerous person in the room, but the reports and the statements by some of their best Special Operations people who'd done operations with her made it quite clear that that was what she was. She'd apparently set a bunch of records at the CIA's Farm that no-one had come close to since then and what's more she'd apparently saved the world from chaos pretty much on her own a few times before she took up with her husband and other partner, the Marine Colonel, Casey. Now that one at least LOOKED like what he was, a grizzled veteran of the military and intelligence communities and the second most dangerous person in the room, he'd done some very impressive things in his time, too, but it took being put with the kid who rewrote the rule books to bring out the extraordinary in him, which brought them to the man of the hour. Admiral Carmichael (that was going to take some getting used to) was sitting there with his beautiful wife, holding their other baby in his lap and laughing at something someone said, but he looked so ordinary, an attractive, intelligent and interesting man, to be sure, but nothing about him came out and SAID that he'd turn your world upside down without even blinking.

Most of the officials there had been players in the military and intelligence communities for decades, but they'd only found out about eight or nine months ago that eighteen years ago they'd been basing most of their career decisions on the work of a couple kids in high school, Admiral Carmichael had been THIRTEEN when he started doing intel analysis and planning for the Defense Intelligence Agency, THIRTEEN, and his sister, Captain Van Der Graaf (they'd have to ask her about that name) had been only sixteen, but what they'd came out with was more solid, insightful and worthwhile than the rest of the agency, or anyone else, ever did. General Beckman (their Godmother for Christ's sake!) had hidden them behind multiple layers of identity, they knew that Carmichael and Van Der Graaf were at least one or two layers away from their real identities, but to most of them, the names they knew them by was John Smith and Susan Jones (those names weren't obviously made up at all, but the intel was so good they didn't care). They remembered asking the General back when she'd dropped the bombshell about Carmichael being Smith and Van Der Graaf being Jones whether their reports had been rewritten before they were forwarded, but she was adamant that they'd been sent as is, which was hard to fathom now that they knew how old they'd been as those reports were insightful, professional and provided projections and predictions that were frighteningly accurate, and the recommendations and directions pretty much always worked. They'd been sure that they were dealing with the pick of the intelligence community's veterans, and when they'd followed the directions that they'd laid out, they hadn't failed, especially Smith's. That was why they hadn't had to debate much when Beckman had proposed making him a Captain to allow him to work effectively, he'd been delivering at pretty much a senior officer's level at thirteen, so at more than twice that age he was definitely ready.

Then there was the special ops stuff, their Godfather, the Army Colonel, Bryan Mills, had pulled strings with his special forces buddies to get them both put through the Ranger, Marine and Special Forces training when they were teenagers, hell, he'd even got Carmichael through SEAL training, and they'd both done pretty damn well. Van Der Graaf was one of the first women who ever got through those trainings and she'd made the grade, beating many of the soldiers that she was training with, but Carmichael had blitzed it. He'd set records that still stood right, left and centre in every course he did, early on someone had nicknamed him Mowgli, from the Jungle Book, to try and put him in his place, but it'd quickly become a term of respect. Very few who had ever had anything to do with him then referred to him with anything but awe and respect. They'd both had Casey (and Mills, too, quite often) with them as protectors through their trainings, but they hadn't assisted them in any way, their achievements were their's alone, though some of the officials musingly looked over at their mother, the stories were that Mary Bartek (like that was her real name), or rather Frost, as she was known as then, had been an earlier version of Captain Carmichael (or Sarah Walker as she'd been then), an unbeatable force, and apparently a lot of the records that Captain Carmichael took at the Farm had been her's, so maybe she passed on some good genes. That thought made them stop and look at the babies sitting in their parents' laps, what would these two turn out to be with parents like this? They just shook their heads, those kids would probably save or destroy the world, but they went back to their father. Mills had got him ride along gigs on all the corps' and agencies' special ops missions fairly regularly, nominally to keep up his skills, but the stories they'd heard were that he'd wanted to build up the boy's confidence, and he'd thought that the respect and admiration of men like these would be good for that, but whatever the reason Carmichael had performed admirably (many said exceptionally), the reports coming from the units he'd been with on those missions had made it a simple matter to get those medals for bravery from all the corps approved, and the leadership he'd shown at times on those missions just made his commission a shoe in.

The flying thing must have gone along with the Special Ops angle, but they were pretty sure that that had come from Casey, as he'd been certified on a number of aircraft before he was hooked up with Carmichael. Apparently Carmichael liked it though, because he'd gotten certified on all of the Navy's and Marine's carrier aircraft and helicopters, along with all variants of the Hercules and the Blackhawk, the Osprey, most of the military's business jets and small transports, the C-17, Apache, Thunderbolt, F-15, and the F-16. Casey was certified on most of those, too, and they'd pulled off a number of quite notable escapades, getting the special ops teams they were with out of sticky situations by "borrowing" all sorts of aircraft and using those skills. Beckman must have called in a lot of favours to get those two the training that they did, but given that they'd had some notable successes as a result of their training it could be said that it was worth it. Apparently Captain Carmichael, Colonel Mills, Commander Miller and Commander Rizzo were certified on a number of aircraft as well, and though it was unlikely that they had quite the breadth of certifications the Admiral and Colonel Casey had, it had been noted that Captain Carmichael was obviously qualified on the F-16, as she'd flown one across the country at least once.

They pondered Admiral Carmichael as they watched him with his family, he'd earned his rank, few of them questioned that, he may not have been in traditional command roles for the past eighteen years, but he'd been making command decisions and helping guide the military, hell, the government, in the right direction over that time. Yes, he was over a decade younger than the next youngest Admiral in US history, but those numbers didn't take into account that he'd had at least as much valid command experience as most of them had had when they reached this level. Still, it had been a bold move on Beckman's part to all but blackmail the President into pushing it through by telling him that if Carmichael didn't get the authority to do his job properly he'd give up and walk away. The gamble had paid off though, the President and the rest of the politicians were so afraid of what might happen without Carmichael and his team to stop their world coming down around their ears that they'd pushed his promotion to flag rank through as a priority (even with the priority, though, the process still took over six months). It WAS an interesting move to get his mother-in-law commissioned to work with them at the same time, mind you, from the reports that Beckman had shown them, she'd been an incredible analyst in her day, too, and she was doing great work as part of their intelligence teams again, so it wasn't simple nepotism, any more than the rest of the Joint Operations Command was, even if they DID look like the poster child for nepotism.

They were still having a hard time getting their heads around just how close the ties in this group were. Navy Rear Admiral (lower half) Charles Carmichael and Navy Captain Eleanor Van Der Graaf were brother and sister. Navy Captain Sarah Carmichael was Admiral Carmichael's wife. Air Force Major General Diane Beckman who'd created the Joint Operations Command and got all but Colonel Mills and Colonel Casey their commissions was Admiral Carmichael and Captain Van Der Graaf's Godmother. Army Colonel Bryan Mills was their Godfather. Marine Colonel John Casey was Admiral Carmichael's partner and had known and worked with him for over sixteen years. Navy Commander Carina Miller and Navy Commander Zondra Miller were Captain Carmichael's sisters. Navy Lieutenant Commander Jeffrey Barnes had been Admiral Carmichael's partner for over fifteen years, while Navy Lieutenant Commander Anna Wu had been Admiral Carmichael's partner for over ten years. Navy Lieutenant Commander Emma Linea was Captain Carmichael's mother. Quite aside from the legends that the Carmichaels and Van Der Graaf were, Mills and Casey had been legends in the military and intelligence communities in their own right for decades. Miller and Rizzo had been famous in the intelligence community for well over a decade (well, sometimes infamous, but their success records were outstanding and the reports from respected Special Operations people said that they were both a force to be reckoned with and that they did amazing things). Barnes and Wu's towering reputations in cyber intelligence went back to before they'd been "recruited" by Admiral Carmichael and were brought onto his team, and the reports were that they were the about only ones who came close to him in that field, and reports about Linea were that she was the best in her day, too. So yes, the team that made up Joint Operations Command was closer than kissing cousins, but it was made up of the best in their fields and they got results that no-one else could even dream of, so the officials who were assembled there to create the youngest Rear Admiral in US history were quite prepared to go with "If it ain't broke, don't fuck with it!"

 **A/N: Yeah, I know it's a stretch, but Chuck's been doing big things for the govt since he was thirteen, and I've never seen a politician who isn't in CYA mode, so falling over themselves to keep the ones that saved their arses several times in the last few years around? I can so see that happening ;)  
**


	22. Admiral Carmichael

**Usual disclaimer for the Land of Litigation, no rights to any characters portrayed etc.**

When they got back to L.A. Chuck found that Sarah had sent all of his uniform jackets and shirts to him Sergio (his suit tailor) to get the rank insignia changed to his new rank (but at least she'd had some done earlier so that he'd have something to wear). He also had to update his medals and ribbons as he and the others been called back up after the main events were done to be awarded additional medals, which meant adding stars and oak leaf clusters to the ribbons for a number of the ones he had, and he'd also been awarded the Homeland Security Distinguished Service Medal, along with the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal and the Soldier's Medal, both with oak leaf clusters (apparently they were worried about being perceived as not recognising the man of the hour and his team sufficiently), what they were having to do to keep up appearances for this was already pissing him off, and the others on the team hadn't had a chance to put on a show yet.

Their chance came soon enough, he knew that Casey and co were up to something when they'd all left before Chuck and Sarah to go to the JOC office the next morning, so he wasn't too surprised by the strident "Admiral on deck!" call that Casey bellowed as they walked in. Chuck made a point of not answering Casey's, Carina's and Ellie's salutes when he answered the others', so they had to stand there like that as he walked past them, if they were going to make a point of trying to embarrass him in the office, he wasn't above making them uncomfortable for a bit. They found that Chuck's stuff had been moved into his new office and Sarah's stuff had been set up in his old office, they also noted that someone had taken the extra step of adding a connecting door between their offices (they were still side by side), so they could access each other without going via the hall, and they appreciated that. They'd settled the twins down in their bassinets before Chuck went to the door to call out "Dismissed!" to the three reprobates to release them. Carina came in immediately to apologise for the stunt, but the other two were too stubborn to do so yet.

The first briefing after the promotion was a debacle, Casey had made the announcement that the new Commander of the JOC would be leading the briefing (he and Ellie had come to apologise for the stunt, it just took them longer to swallow their pride) before Chuck entered, and the epaulettes quite clearly showed his new rank, but half of them kept addressing him as Captain Carmichael. They obviously didn't believe that an unknown Captain could be promoted to a one star Admiral without any reports circulating through the military, and therefore decided that he was faking his rank (even though that would have been totally stupid and rather easily discovered), they just didn't accept that it was real because no-one had ever just been promoted to flag rank without any notice or fanfare before. When one of the more aggressive Colonels came out and said that he wasn't buying into this stunt and that he would be reporting them as soon as he returned to base, Chuck's terse response was "Oh, you don't need to wait for that Colonel" and he keyed the remote to bring up the screens in the room, to show the heads of the four primary corps and General Beckman, who had been watching and monitoring the briefing via the video conferencing facilities.

The looks on the faces of the Generals as they informed their subordinates that they were on the verge of being recalled and put on charges of showing disrespect to a superior officer were painful, all the more so when the one who'd mouthed off persisted, convinced that the General just didn't understand what he was telling him. The Chief of Staff of the Army ended up cutting him off and instructing his Special Forces Colonel to remove his Rangers Colonel, as proceedings would be started to look into relieving him of his command on top of the other charges he was facing, but stopped them and told them to wait as he turned to look "at" Chuck and apologised for the Colonel's behaviour, asking him whether he had a picture that he could bring up to show them. Chuck understood what he was asking for and murmured "Not at all General, wait just a moment, there" as the group photo from the Induction ceremony came up on one of the screens, showing Chuck in his Rear Admiral's uniform with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Chief of Naval Operations, Chief of Staff of the Army, Commandant of the Marine Corps, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, the Commander in Chief, Special Operations Command and the Commander of the US Cyber Command, along with the Secretaries of Defense and the Navy, the DNI and the other assembled officials (as well as Sarah, Ellie, Bry and Casey, as the next tier of the JOC). The General pointed out to his people (along with the others in the room) that the Admiral's promotion and appointment was legitimate, and it had happened with the attendance and support of all key parties in the United States Military, and others, so anyone else in the Army who questioned or showed disrespect to the Admiral would receive the same treatment as that one (waving at the man now being escorted from the room), and the other three corps' heads concurred with his statements. Chuck thanked the General for his comments and apologised to the four of them for disturbing them for something this trivial. The others in the room were looking at each other as they listened to the banter between these six before the four heads and Auntie D dropped off the link, wondering what they had gotten themselves into (he'd just gone from a Captain to a one star Admiral in less than a year apparently and they were talking to him seriously about why it would probably take longer to process his next promotion already? What the hell was going on here?)

When the Generals (and Admiral) dropped off the link and the Special Forces Colonel had returned with a Rangers Major to stand in for the colonel who'd been removed and detained, Chuck asked whether they could get on with the briefing. One of the Majors nervously (and respectfully) asked if it would be possible to get a copy of the picture (waving in the direction of the screen where the group photo had been displayed), as it could help get everyone on-board with the changes and avoid further problems. Chuck nodded, saying easily that that could be arranged, and the man's "Thank you sir." was almost drowned out by others in the room jumping in to request copies as well. Chuck looked at Sarah with a request (as Ellie and Casey were key parts of the briefing at that point) and she nodded with a smile, ducking out to organise the printing of the requested images. She also queued up the printing of extra copies for Chuck's and her offices and the main office walls, plus the main conference room, along with the group photo of the core JOC team (including Auntie D and Josie) with the SECNAV and the Chief of Naval Operations, the Commander in Chief, Special Operations Command and the Commander of the US Cyber Command, as well as the pictures of Emma receiving her commission and Chuck's promotion. She asked one of the Petty officers to arrange for frames ASAP for the ones that they'd be putting up in their offices while the first batch of pictures was printing and she grabbed them to take them back into the meeting as soon as the printing was done.

After that, the briefing went more smoothly, they got everyone up to speed on the preparations for the operation that was coming up, Chuck made sure that the Major representing the Rangers was comfortable that he had what he needed to make the necessary preparations for his unit (given that he'd been dragged in in the middle of this briefing with no background or preparation), and while the rest of the pictures were left on the table to be picked up, Chuck handed the first copy (with a hand written note on the back) to the Major who had come out and requested it, shaking his hand as a mark of respect for the fact that he was prepared to take the risk of asking while the others were too afraid to rock the boat after seeing what happened to the Colonel who'd crossed this Admiral.

Getting back into the swing of things and sorting out the new structure took a while, Chuck assigned management of Information Dominance matters within the team to Ellie, and assigned management of the Joint Operations planning and direction matters to Sarah, he retained oversight of the lot and continued doing his work the way he'd been doing it. Emma generally functioned as a floating assistant, working with whoever required assistance with operations planning. When Ellie was given responsibility for the Information Dominance side, she sat down with Anna, Jeff and Emma, and with some consultation with the others, totally re-imaged that side of things into something which could keep up with the operations' demand for intel. Many of the staff were replaced with more qualified people, and the rest were retrained to deliver what they needed. After the initial stumbling blocks the new structure worked well, though the group looked nothing like it did when they started.

Over the ensuing months, things continued much as they were, they were doing less covert missions for the Intersect team, and most of those involved Chuck and Sarah attending functions as the Carmichaels and directing Casey, Carina, Zondra and Josie in what had to be done, or just Casey, Carina or Zondra handling the missions (alone or together) with Chuck and Sarah providing remote support, while their "serious" missions where they were infiltrating facilities going after hard targets were usually handled by Casey, Carina, Zondra and Josie (with Chuck or Sarah providing support or going in incognito if they were needed for their technical expertise or the Intersect). The agreement Chuck made with Sarah was that neither of them would be doing the dangerous missions any more unless necessary, because they'd both grown up without one or both parents, and they weren't going to put the twins through that if they had any say in the matter. Also, with the very public profile of the Carmichaels, they couldn't afford to be recognised as an active part of any missions, so if either of them had to participate in an active role, they were always wearing the armour and helmets that Stephen and Laszlo came up with to protect their identities and lives (wherever possible they tried to make the rest of the team wear them, too, because they were living public lives as part of Piranha and their safety was just as important to the family). Generally Chuck was back to "stay in the van" mode again on most missions, but at least he had Sarah with him now

The wearing of the Nova (as Stephen and Laszlo had tagged all the gear they came up with) armour and helmets was also pushed whenever any of the team went in as part of the joint operations as well. It was generally accepted that they were some sort of ultra secret soldier/spy team anyway, so having gear that no-one else had ever seen was taken as the norm for them (like the Wraith aircraft (the Wagon, Van, Truck and Semi), and the new ultra-fast (almost hypersonic) Valkyrie transports, they'd used them on some of the operations as the only way to get in and out of the sites for the operations, but made sure that anyone involved in those missions knew that they were beyond top secret and any talk about them would result with their careers being dead, if not more). Most of the time if Chuck or Sarah went along, they'd fly the team in and out, and direct the operations from the aircraft. For that matter, the others did that too most of the time, as their strengths were best utilised in directing the action, not getting into it. Besides which, they were all least at Captain/Colonel rank now (Carina and Zondra had been promoted to Captain as well a few months after Chuck took over the command to alleviate the on-going command problems they'd been having, IE: The old school pushing back and not wanting to accept a lower authority being in charge), and officers one rung below flag rank weren't supposed to be in the middle of the action (even though Casey, Bry, Carina and Zondra liked to be). Directing the operations from the transport also alleviated the problems potentially generated by one of them kicking the arse of (or shooting) some idiot who wanted to argue about who was in charge in the middle of an operation, if they weren't THERE to get into it, they had to fall back on the established protocols for those contingencies (the ones that would cover them when the shit hit the fan).

If the Joint Operations Command had looked top heavy originally, it was even more so now, with the Commander as a one star USN Admiral, with four USN Captains, a USA Colonel, a USMC Colonel and a USN Commander under him as his senior officers (plus a two star USAF General assigned to the group as a liaison). The remaining staff were mainly USN junior Restricted Line Officers in the technical streams who were part of the Information Dominance Warfare team, made up of two Lieutenant Commanders, three Lieutenants, six Lieutenant (junior grade)s and ten Ensigns, plus one USMC First Lieutenant, and a Warrant Officer with a handful of Petty Officers and Seamen who were assigned to the logistics for the group.

With Ellie managing what was effectively their analyst pool and Emma assisting on operations planning, things were going fairly smoothly, when requirements came in (there were more allocated joint projects than they ones they generated from their work now), Ellie and Emma would ensure that the requirements were met by the time one of their pool of Joint Operations commanders (Chuck, Sarah, Casey, Bry, Carina or Zondra) was ready to pick it up. That meant that as soon as someone was ready to pick up the operation, they could queue up the briefings and hit the ground running.

Even with what had become the standard practice of at having least a couple of senior Generals and Admirals who were represented by members of the joint operation "sitting in" via video conference facilities so that they could weigh in if there were problems, their briefings were still "spirited", as every group had at least one tool who would think that it was OK to try and hit on Sarah or one of the others (even Emma had to ward off advances, as she was still a beautiful woman). Chuck, Casey and Bry stuck to the agreed framework, they'd let the girls handle it themselves until they were given leave to step in. It was bound to happen that Josie was the one being hit on one day, though, and when a young USMC Major started doing that when she brought in some files for Casey, they were waiting for the shit storm to come down as soon as her mother saw what was happening. The Commandant of the Marine Corps was sitting in on that meeting, so Chuck turned to "his" screen and mouthed "Expect a phone call" at the camera. The General looked confused, and then surprised when his desk phone rang, and in his hurry to grab the phone he forgot to mute the mic in his office, so they could hear his side of the call. "Hello Diane" "Yes, I can see that but the young lady seems to be handling the situation fine" "Yes I agree that his behaviour is unacceptable and he will be disciplined, but I can't see how this merits interrupting the briefing..." "She's WHAT?" "Is there anyone in that group who isn't related to anyone?" "Thank you so much for that image, I could have done without thinking about him that way!" "I'll handle it now, goodbye." As he hung up the phone with a disturbed expression on his face, he went to un-mute his mic, only to find that it wasn't muted, so he looked up with a frown and spoke to the room. "Gentlemen, and ladies, I'm sorry to interrupt the briefing but there is something that I need to address." "Colonel Johnson, can you take charge of Major West's materials and cover all aspects that relate to the corps for the remainder of this meeting, please?" At the Colonel's nod and "Yes Sir!" "Major West, pass everything you have to Colonel Johnson and leave the room immediately, you are to wait outside for a Marine escort, I will see you in my office at 0800 tomorrow morning!" the Major tried to say something but was cut off with terse "What part of your orders didn't you understand Major?" The room was silent as he hastily pulled everything together and handed it to the USMC Colonel, and while he was doing that, Josie looked a question at Casey and he mouthed "Your Mom." At that her eyes widened and she looked up at the dark screen that she now knew her mother was behind, wincing as she thought about what her mother was likely to say to HER later. As the Major was packing up and leaving, Chuck mouthed "Sorry General" at his screen, to see him nod with a frown as he picked up his phone to call for the Major to be picked up and brought to him, this time he remembered to mute his mic, though.

The briefing was completed without any further hitches after the Major left, and the team went back to work. About half an hour later, Josie tentatively entered Chuck's open office and walked to his desk so that she could quietly ask if she could speak to him privately? When he just told her to say what she wanted to say, she nervously looked over her shoulder at the door into Sarah's office and asked in a whisper "Does Sarah know.." The answer came from behind her. "About him sleeping with you when you were underage? Yes, she does." Josie spun around wide eyed to find Sarah standing in the door way. She looked quickly back at Chuck "What about…." "Him looking after your little friends too? Yes, he told me about that as well." Josie's shoulders slumped in relief as she explained that she'd been worried because her mother was really pissed about what had happened with that Major and she'd made a comment about her being back to her old tricks again before she hung up on her. Sarah had walked into Chuck's office and propped herself on the edge of his desk now, so she could talk to both of them more easily. "I'm sure she wouldn't intentionally hurt either of you, but like I said she's REALLY pissed at me, so something might have come out…." She looked at Chuck "Did you know that she knew about it from the start?" Chuck's eyes went wide "What, no, she couldn't!" Josie nodded, saying. "She told me when she was trying to decide whether to attach me to the team when Piranha and the Fish Palace was activated." She looked at Sarah as she continued. "She told me that I needed to back off, because if I did anything to get between the two of you she'd disown me, but Chuck had stopped anything between us as soon as you'd arrived and I respected that, I was so happy that he'd finally found what, who, he was looking for and I'd never do anything to screw that up for him. It was only when I told her that that she put me on the team."

Sarah was thinking that this was the strangest, but somehow heart warming discussions she'd ever had, she could see that Josie was almost pleading with her to believe what she was telling her, but at that point Chuck spluttered "But if she knew, why didn't she stop it, why did she let it go on for years?" Josie wearily sat down in one of the chairs in front of Chuck's desk as she continued. "I asked her that, she said that I was obviously too much of my father's daughter for her to be able to stop me doing it, and she knew that you would be as gentle, tender and considerate a lover as you were in everything else, so she believed that I'd be happier and safer with you than I would be with anyone else, she'd also hoped that it would make you happy, too, as you'd had precious little happiness in your life." She looked at Chuck as she added. "She really does care about you, she still cries about what's happened to you and Ellie sometimes." Turning to Sarah she went on. "There was also the fact that I'd been infatuated with Chuck from when I was a little girl, I was sure that we were meant to be together, so she knew I'd go after Chuck when I decided that it was time." She looked at Chuck. "We were each other's first time, and it was wonderful." Turning back to Sarah she went on. "It was so wonderful I wanted to share it with my friends, so I got Chuck to come to a sleepover and conned him into showing them what he'd shown me, that's one thing that I know he wouldn't have told you, this was all on me, I conned him into it the first time and just about every time after that." Sarah looked at her. "No, he didn't tell me, but I worked that out from what he told me about what happened, I've been conning people since I was a little girl too, so I know all the tells that show what's happening." Josie nodded, glad to know that Sarah understood who was to blame, and she went on, talking to Sarah more than Chuck with a distracted expression as she reminisced. "So we went on having sleepovers and parties, I'd invite my friends and they'd often invite their friends, sisters and cousins, Chuck was a lot of girls' first time, as well as showing a lot of other girls just how wonderful it could be. We were pretty much all a little bi-curious at that stage and those sleepovers became weekend long orgies at times, just a group of girls and Chuck, he'd spend all weekend with his mouth, tongue, fingers or whatever on or in different parts of different girls for almost the entire time, and we'd be helping each other out while he was busy."

Chuck had gone bright red and Sarah was looking wide eyed at her husband. THIS was the guy that Diane, Bry and Ellie were worried didn't have enough self confidence, the one who could hardly talk to her when she arrived, who was so nervous when they had to put on PDAs? He'd spent years apparently doing a hell of a job of pleasuring multiple girls at once at these sleepover orgies, not to mention all the other amazing things he did, how could he be so self depreciating? Any other guy would have been shouting this from the rooftops! It crossed her mind that at least she understood why those young women had run up to hug and kiss him at functions now, she'd met some of the others without realising it. The multiple girls thing did bring up another question, though, and she figured that this was the time to ask. "If you were so in love with him, like you said, what was with the other girls? That's what I really can't understand, I can assure you I never want to share him with anyone!" Josie looked down for a moment. "Yeah, Mom asked that too, only she called it pimping Chuck out to all my girlfriends, I don't know, like I said, it was just so wonderful I wanted them to feel what I was feeling, and I could tell that Chuck was happy, too, so it just kept going. I guess I realised that while I loved him, I didn't feel the need to keep him to myself, but it was just so great for all of us that we didn't want any of it to stop." Sarah nodded, not really understanding her views but accepting that she hadn't just been using Chuck. "But you were on the East Coast and he was on the West Coast, how did you organise these little parties, which happened how often?" Josie looked embarrassed as she answered in reverse order. "The parties, yeah, we'll call them that, happened at least once a month, sometimes twice, depending on when my girlfriends' fathers could fake the paperwork for ferry flights for fast planes, F-15s, F-16s, F-14s or F-18s (and F-22s sometimes) back and forth between Edwards, Travis, Ventura County, Lemoore, North Island, Miramar, Nellis or Fallon on the West Coast and Andrews, Dover, Langley–Eustis, Norfolk or Oceana on the East Coast, they'd list the flights under the names of pilots who weren't around for some reason, Chuck would ride his bike to the nearest base to where he was and slip into the base, get a flight to where the fighter jet was waiting if that wasn't that base, then he'd fly the jet across the country and either slip off the base if he was nearby, or get a flight to a closer base or airfield if he wasn't, sometimes he parachuted in or was dropped off by a helicopter, that was cool. He must have added over a hundred hours a year to his flight hours just with those trips he was doing back and forth, and I think the excitement of slipping in and out of the military bases and doing all those clandestine flights across the country in supersonic fighter jets just added to the fun for him." Chuck smiled and nodded at her last comment, it was fun.

Sarah looked thoughtful as she responded. "I think you'll find that the person behind those travel arrangements was your mother, not your girlfriends' fathers. What you've just described was exactly what Casey did to get us on an F-16D from Edwards so we could get back to D.C. in time to help Chuck take down the Ring and rescue your mother, I thought at the time that it wasn't like him to know how to set up something as dodgy and twisted as that, but I was just desperate to get back to Chuck that I didn't ask any questions, so it looks like Casey was making those arrangements on behalf of your mother, or at least some of them." She paused and looked back at Chuck, "And when did you get certified on F-22s anyway? I don't remember seeing that listed anywhere?" Chuck shrugged, saying that he wasn't officially certified on all the aircraft that he was qualified on, because most of the later entries were under different names, Charles Irving, Charles Rana, Charles Konn, Charles Igel, Charles Frosch, Charles Zaba, Charles Beka, Charles Groda, Charles Baqa, Charles Varde, Charles Kikker, Charles Broasca, Charles Froskur, Charles Granota, Charles Chule, Charles Zring, they'd used the name Charles Carmichael with the Navy, Marines, Army and Air Force to put him through the special ops and other training, so they'd hung onto it for his flight training, but people started looking a little too closely at the training and activities of Charles Carmichael, so they created the other identifies. They set up four identities in each of the corps and went to a different one each time he needed to be signed up or listed for anything from then on. Sarah asked what other ones he'd done as Charles Irving, but had to laugh at his response. "Not many, the F-22, F-117, B-1, B-2, the later F-18 variants, the three F-35 variants, Osprey, S-97, that's pretty much it." "That's all, huh?" "Yeah, that's pretty much it." Sarah went around to sit in his lap and kiss him, telling him that he was ridiculous, once again he'd tossed out a list that most would boast about to the world as if they were nothing, she also assured him that she wasn't upset about the parties, she was just surprised, well, shocked would probably be closer.

Chuck looked a little uncomfortable when she said that so she asked if there were any other surprises that she should know about? Chuck and Josie looked at each other pensively and Sarah suddenly connected the dots. "Kim, that's why you were the only one she felt comfortable talking to and she had no hesitation getting undressed and getting into bed with us, she was part of this arrangement too, wasn't she?" Chuck looked down and nodded. "Not often, but yes, I couldn't say no to her after Josie told her." Sarah was running her fingers through his hair as she said quietly "Every time I think I have you figured out, you come up with something else to show that there's far more to you than I ever imagined, well one thing's certain, life with you will never be boring Sweetheart, in fifty years you'll still be surprising me, probably when you're telling our grandkids, or their kids, something else I hadn't heard about before. Just remember that you're mine, and mine alone now, OK?" Chuck looked up with a hopeful expression, saying "I wouldn't have it any other way Honey" and Sarah laughed and hugged him, telling him that she wasn't going anywhere, and neither was he.

Sarah looked up at Josie whether she was OK? Josie nodded, saying that she was glad that this was out in the open now and it couldn't cause trouble for them, but she was still worried about her mother. She stopped, and asked them if she'd been flirting with that Major, she hadn't thought that she was, but her mother said something to that effect? Sarah got up and went to put her arms around her, saying that she hadn't been doing anything, the guy was just a douche who saw a beautiful woman who didn't outrank him, and he thought he had a shot, it wasn't her fault, it was his. Josie let the tears flow for a while, then she went back to her office.

Chuck looked at Sarah, asking what happens next? Sarah smiled at him, saying "What happens next, Admiral, is that you've got to sit down and get through the jobs waiting for you so we can get home and catch up on the work from our other business." He pouted. "Well I suppose I could do that, though there are others things I'd rather do." She moved in to kiss him "I know baby, but we've got to make this work, especially with your Godmother starting world war three over that douche." "Yeah, I know, I'll just kiss the kids and then I'll get onto it." "Sounds good, I think I better call Diane and make sure that she understands that Josie didn't do anything to lead that douche on." "That'd be great, we don't need more problems in the family, thanks."

Sarah brought up some work to get started on before she called Diane, expecting that it would take a while for Josie's mother to accept that she hadn't done anything wrong. She'd called that right, Diane was stuck in the notion that Josie had inherited her father's uncontrollable libido, and for a while there was nothing that Sarah could say to shake her belief that Josie had initiated it, eventually Sarah had to scream at her and call her fucking stubborn to get through to her. When she was prepared to listen at last, Sarah told her to watch the recording of the meeting and she'd see that it was all the Major, not Josie, but she'd be better off having a drink and calming down first. When she'd conceded the point, Sarah decided to back things off by asking whether she had all of Chuck's flight records? Knowing that there was something behind the question, Diane asked what she meant by all? "Everything that's listed under Charles Carmichael, and any of the other sixteen names you had him flying under, plus the ferry flights you arranged across the country at least once a month." "Who told you?" "Chuck told me part of it, and some of it I worked out myself, but it only came out because Josie came to Chuck to make sure that he and I wouldn't be hurt if you were angry enough to let something slip about what they did before we met, and by the way Chuck did tell me when we got together, not in as much detail as I just found out, perhaps, but he did tell me about Josie and her friends. She didn't come for her sake, though, she came for our's, to try and make sure that it wouldn't hurt us, and she made sure that she told me it was her fault, not Chuck's, so you need to give her more credit." Diane rubbed her face, saying that she was trying to, but these things just kept coming up, when Sarah went to speak she cut her off, saying that yes, she would review the recordings when she'd calmed down, and she added that she'd just sent Chuck's flight records to her, with that they said that they'd talk to each other soon and signed off.

Even though she knew that the work was the priority, Sarah couldn't resist having a look at Chuck's records first. Looking at what was listed under Charles Carmichael, alone was rather impressive, but together with the other sixteen names it was scary, after being certified on the first few aircraft in each category, Chuck's time to get the certification dropped significantly and he passed all the certification requirements in a fraction of the time that most pilots took, and between the certification times, exercises he'd been in, and the hours he'd spent shuttling supersonic jet fighters back and forth across the country for about eight years, he'd clocked up over 2500 hours, though he'd only managed about 500 hours over the past five years since he'd met her, so his total now only stood at a bit over 3000 hours. That still was pretty impressive for someone who only flew in his spare time, and certainly didn't reflect the number of aircraft certifications he had, or the fact that the records showed that Charles Irving probably would had taken out the Topgun award at Fallon when he went through if he'd done more than the subset of the exercises he'd participated in while skipping the bulk of it. Diane had included a note when she sent the file over to say that they could arrange to amalgamate all the records under Charles Carmichael to show the full picture of his flight qualifications and log books if he wanted to, so Sarah would have to talk to him about that. Looking through the files took longer than it should have, as she kept diving down into different areas, he'd originally started on helicopters and small transports in the Army and Air Force, the Hercules family and the C-17 (logical with his special ops involvement) before branching out to the USMC Harriers and helicopters, Navy Carrier helicopters, transports and fighters, along with land based fighters, military business jets and bombers, and the last new types he went onto were the V-22 tilt rotor and the S-97 counter rotating twin rotor. It looked like flying new and different aircraft certifications were what he'd enjoyed, and the powers that be (at Diane's prompting of course) had obviously been prepared to approve the funding to keep him happy, shit, setting up those fighter flights back and forth to Josie's "parties" must have cost at least $200K alone, but since she'd turned up he'd only logged a fraction of the hours he used to, which made her wonder whether he'd given that up just to keep up appearances for her? She copied the file onto her laptop so that she could talk to him about Diane's offer at home, but it made her wonder how much he'd given up for her, did he miss Josie's parties too?


	23. Joint Operations Command

**OK Wilf, I give in, Chuck is, in fact, Supa-Nerd ;)**

 **What was that about life imitating art? A few chapters back I decided that as the team would use call signs from The Jungle Book, Casey's would be Baloo, but I was just looking something up and saw that in the 1994 real life-live action version of The Jungle Book, Baloo was actually played by a bear called Casey, so I guess it's the right name for him? ;)**

 **Usual disclaimer, no rights to any characters portrayed.**

When they'd wound up the things they needed to get done in the JOC office, Chuck and Sarah packed up everything and headed for the car with the usual load, a backpack for Chuck with their work gear (laptops, tablets, drives and other devices plus any paperwork they needed) and the baby bags for Sarah, along with a baby carrier each. The Carmichaels were the strangest sight that most people have ever seen walking the halls of the Los Angeles Air Force Base, a beautiful young couple with their babies, who both happened to be highly decorated, high ranked (an Admiral and a Captain) Naval officers. The sight was only made stranger if Ellie was with them as it was obvious to anyone with eyes that she was Chuck's sister, but she was was also a Navy Captain with more medals than most in a facility like that, and if she was there she'd take the baby bags off Sarah to share the load, which made the family image that much stranger.

Back at the Fish Palace, they went straight to the Piranha Offices to catch up on their Piranha work, and spent a couple of hours doing that before they headed up to the penthouse, Charlie and Sam were generally happy and quiet as long as they were near at least one of their parents, so that worked out OK. Once they were home in the penthouse, Chuck and Sarah changed out of their uniforms and Chuck went to start dinner while Sarah bathed the twins (they mixed it up sometimes but generally they both preferred Chuck's cooking, so this was their normal routine when they went to the LA AFB offices).

After dinner, they were taking a chance to relax for an hour or so before they went back to working on their Piranha, Intersect team, DIA or JOC commitments, and Sarah thought that it would be a good time to bring up what she'd been thinking about earlier, so she grabbed the integrated keyboard on the end table and accessed Chuck's flight files from her laptop which was plugged in in the workroom. When the files were up on the big flat screen in front of them, she told him what Diane had offered, to get the flight records for all of his identities amalgamated into one, his primary Charles Carmichael identity, so everything would show up properly. She couldn't understand why he just shrugged, and said that he didn't care one way or the other, because seeing all of what he'd done, it was an incredible achievement and she thought he should be recognised for that. Chuck didn't want to argue about it (or discuss it at all, for that matter), but he knew that once she got her teeth into something she didn't let go so he put his arm around her to pull her into his side and tried to explain.

As Chuck launched into his explanation about why the certifications and flight hours didn't mean much to him, because it was just a way to find something new and interesting when his life was just a grind most of the time, he could feel Sarah stiffening, but while he couldn't understand the reason why he ploughed on with his explanation, as he didn't really want to have to go through this again. He told Sarah what his and Ellie's lives had been like when they were teenagers, how they'd been forced to live cover lives even then, pretending to be from a struggling family with their parents out most of the time working, so they could never be seen to have or do anything that didn't fit into that miserly lifestyle. They'd worked damned hard at school to make sure they could get the scholarships they needed to study in the fields they wanted, and when they were at home they were both usually studying additional subjects from distance learning schools on top of that. When they were dragged into the DIA to work for them, at first it was a nice change from the grind, and the sense of achievement was a buzz, but pretty soon, between the workload and the responsibility (knowing that the decisions and recommendations you make puts the lives of hundreds, or more, in your hands was quite a burden to carry, especially at that age), that just became part of the grind too. When they started doing the special ops trainings with Uncle Bry, it was a new and exciting thing for them, and the sense of achievement at succeeding, or even excelling, against the elite soldiers that they went through those trainings with was heady stuff, but even with the additional SEAL training that Uncle Bry got him into, that finished soon enough. He didn't know why, but Uncle Bry had gotten him and Casey added to special ops exercises and missions fairly regularly, and he appreciated that because he got a sense of achievement, and a thrill, from being part of those missions. When he was sixteen, Casey could see what he was going through, and he even seemed to understand to a degree, so he got him started on flight training, starting out in small planes and helicopters and going on from there, he was seventeen when he was certified on his first supersonic jet, and it was a blast. Since then, getting certified on new aircraft, and especially new types of aircraft, had been his main way of experiencing something new and interesting, and it had proven quite handy when they'd been caught out on the special ops missions (which seemed to happen all too often) and managed to "borrow" a plane or helicopter to get the team away, though it had been pretty hairy that time that he had to take a Hokum attack helicopter to provide cover against an armoured division so that Casey and the rest of the team could get away in a Halo transport, because Casey wasn't qualified on that type of attack helicopter while he was. Anyway, the special ops missions and aircraft certifications had created something interesting in his life, a way to get away from the grind that the rest of his life was.

Sarah pulled away to look at him. "So why have you stopped doing that?" She grabbed the keyboard again to highlight what he'd done in the past five years and pointed at the screen. "You've only got a few certifications and a third of the flying time in the past five years, why have you given up that, was it because of me? Have I stopped you doing this?" Chuck looked at her as if she'd just grown a second head. "Have you been listening to what I've been telling you? Honey, I was doing that because I hated my life and wanted to escape from it, and the special forces missions and flying, or more to the point getting new aircraft certifications or qualifications, was my way of getting a break from the grind that was my life. With you in my life, why the hell would I need to get away from my life? You ARE my life!" Sarah looked at him with unshed tears in her eyes. "So I'm not holding you back? You're happy with us?" He laughed and pulled her back into his arms to kiss her. "I don't think I was ever really happy before there was an us, but for the record, yes, I'm happy with my life, which is us and our children. I have everything I need to be happy right now, and there's nothing of any interest to me that you could ever hold me back from." She looked him in the eye. "And what about Josie's parties, are you trying to tell me that flying across the country in supersonic fighter jets to satisfy multiple women every few weeks didn't make you happy, especially given who some of those women were? I'm may be way behind you on pop culture, but even I knew who half of the women I've met from those parties were, hell, I have albums and movies from some of the ones I've met. Are you really trying to tell me you don't miss that?" He knew that she'd have to bring this up, but he was sorta hoping that it may have taken her a bit longer than this. "Yes, the adventure and the parties were fun, I felt like James Bond when I was slipping past all the security to get in and out of those military bases, and then for all intents and purposes I was stealing the US Military's best fighter jets and flying them across the country, especially when I finished the trip by parachuting in or fast roping off a helicopter to get there, I don't deny that that was exciting. As for the parties themselves, OK, yes, spending the night or the weekend giving a number of women everything they wanted was a rush, and I'd often have a smile on my face for a day or two afterwards." He saw Sarah's face start to drop as he described the weekends and knew that he had to get to the point. "But, none of that was close to what I feel when I'm with you, because of what you mean to me, you complete me and I've NEVER been happier than when I'm with you, so no, I can tell you with all honesty that I haven't missed Josie's parties, not since I've had you. I loved to make them happy, but it didn't mean as much to me as it would have if I'd felt a fraction of what I do for you for them. I didn't even get to do those flights across the country that I enjoyed all the time either, because sometimes she came across to L.A. and then it was just the parties, and that was a bit of a let down for me. I thought I proved to you that celebrities didn't hold a patch on you for me when you were pregnant, didn't I?"

His final words opened the floodgates, he always did this to her, just when she was sure she knew the way things were, he'd say something so incredibly beautiful and wonderful and make all her fears go away, and what's more he'd make sure that she understood and accepted that what he'd told her was the absolute truth. Facing down terrorist leaders, warlords, drug kingpins or crime czars and their armies had never phased her (especially before Chuck when she had nothing to lose, but even now she still could face down threats like that without blinking, because she knew just what to do in those circumstances), but dealing with emotions, love, happiness, and even jealousy, had always been her Achilles heel, and Chuck brought those out in her as no-one else ever had (or would, she was sure), it terrified her. Every time she thought it was too much and she'd question what she was doing and her place in this life, though, he'd do or say something to make everything alright, like he just had.

When she'd let it out, she wiped the tears away and sat up away from him, putting on a serious face as she told him he still hadn't answered her original question, did he want all his flight records amalgamated to show under Charles Carmichael's name, or didn't he? Chuck looked at her in exasperation as he took the integrated keyboard off her and quickly split the displayed elements into two blocks, one listing the bomber and foreign helicopter, fighter and transport certifications and flight hours, and the other (slightly larger) one listing the US helicopter, transport, fighter and VTOL aircraft certification and hours. As he handed the keyboard back to her he told her that the general list could be amalgamated into the Charles Carmichael records, but the other one would raise too many questions, so they should stay where they were. Then he nudged her shoulder and pointed out to the roof garden (where they both knew that "their" Wraith Wagons (W1 and W2) were sitting, even though it wasn't obvious where they were) and asked why would he bother with conventional aircraft when his father and his team of mad scientists had come up with the Wraiths and the Valkyries? The Wraith Semis could enter or leave a site totally undetected with full VTOL, carry more than a C-17, reach Mach 1.5 if they needed to (thanks to the plasma layer emitters they used to reduce drag, friction and the supersonic shockwave), and had trans-continental range, nothing conventional could come close to that, and if they didn't need that much capacity, they could go down to the Trucks, Vans or Wagons for something smaller and handier, then they had the Valkyries, almost as stealthy as the Wraiths, also had VTOL and trans-continental range, and they could do over Mach 4.5. Yeah, the full Valkyrie Liners were nearly four times the length of the Wraith Trucks for a bit less capacity, but they were over three times as fast. For that matter, the Valkyrie Falcons were originally built as a ¼ scale flight prototype for the Valkyrie and while they'd only carry two in a tandem layout, they could land anywhere there was 18M by 3M space and carry two people across the world at nearly hypersonic speeds, so why would he worry about spending much time keeping up to speed on conventional aircraft when they had exclusive access to some of the most technically advanced aircraft in the world, which could out perform anything else?

Sarah conceded his point that he wasn't missing out on anything by not pursuing ordinary aircraft, or women (she wasn't totally convinced about the latter, but she wasn't about to argue with him on that), so with that discussion out of the way they brought up a show to watch in the background as they snuggled for a while.

The next morning they were back in the JOC offices, running through the planning for the operation that had the setback due to the crap in the meeting yesterday. They'd talked to the superiors of the Major who'd been removed and had confirmation that they had a replacement who was being brought up to speed by the Colonel who'd been there as well, so they didn't foresee the replacement effecting the op that much. With the scale of this operation, they'd be taking two Wraith Semis in with about 240 of the various special forces first strike troops to disable the defences and get a foothold, and once they'd to secured the airstrips and gave them safe approach, a fleet of C-17s would bring in and deploy the Marine battalion that made up the rest of the forces, at that point the JOC representatives (Chuck and Casey) would have finished their role in the operation. They would wait just long enough to ensure that their specialised skill sets weren't required, and then take off, the special forces units could get a ride back on the C-17s that had brought the regular troops when their bit was done, or if they managed to hand off to the regular troops quick enough, they could get a ride back on the Wraiths.

Most of the ones that they'd been taking in to secure a foothold for the rest to come in had worked with the JOC guys before, they knew that Admiral Carmichael was the famous Mowgli, and while Colonel Casey, Baloo, wasn't in his league (well who was, except perhaps his wife, the beautiful Captain Carmichael?), the Colonel was respected as a formidable warrior by the people in the know, so they were two respected warriors who the teams knew would run the operations perfectly to allow them to take the areas they needed in minimal time and with minimal casualties (if any) as long as they followed their orders. Then there were the wraiths themselves, those machines were incredible, the ones they were going in on for this operation were the big ones, they'd carry more than a C-17, but were a fair bit smaller overall, and they were twice as fast, had VTOL and they were totally undetectable, they couldn't even be seen, they were the perfect vehicles for special operations like this. The ones who got to ride on the Wraiths had had the rules drummed into them until they couldn't forget them, these things were being developed by some ultra top secret skunk works that belonged to one of those secret agencies (though why they were still under development no-one knew, they worked damned well already) and if anyone said anything about them they'd disappear, along with anyone they talked to. The word was (and that they were quite prepared to believe it) that all these Wraith aircraft were mined with self destruct mechanisms that would go off if anyone tried to access anything they were told not to, no-one but the JOC crew were allowed in the cockpit, and absolutely everything was controlled from the cockpit, so anyone else was nothing but a passenger. The special forces teams who got to ride on the Wraiths didn't care about the rules though, they were delivered to the door fast and all they had to do was jump out and fight, that worked for them.

Four days later, the operation was on, the fleet of C-17s and the regular troops were in the staging area, ready to move in, as were the special forces platoons who were waiting to be picked up by the Wraiths. The Wraiths appeared and the platoons loaded ASAP, the call went out for the C-17s to take off and then the Wraiths went, using their greater speed to give the special ops teams time to clear any defences and opposition. The teams did their jobs, with Chuck and Casey (or rather Mowgli and Baloo) using satellite, fixed camera and UAV feeds to keep an eye on what was happening and directing the operations. Once the call to come on in was sent to the other troops, Chuck switched his attention to hacking into the systems at the site and getting everything possible out of them, so they could get the intel they needed to progress the actions to take down the Junta that they were currently stripping the military forces away from. The problem was that Chuck ran into a rather big snag, in the form of "air gap" controls being used to block access to some of the systems (there were no physical links between these systems and the outside world, so the usual hacking mechanisms used to get through gateway and network controls wouldn't work). The air gap told them three things, first, someone knew what they were doing, second, there was something important behind that air gap, and third, Chuck was going to have to go in and physically access the systems behind the air gap if they wanted to get in to collect the intel that was being hidden.

Chuck called for one of the SEAL platoons to support him as he narrowed down the location of the air gapped systems and let Casey know where he was going and why, telling him good naturedly to get fukd when he reminded Chuck that Sarah would bring him back to kill him again if he did something stupid and got himself killed. He sent the location of the facility to the Lieutenant in charge of the platoon he was co-opting to support him when he went in and lifted off to move the Wraith to the facility. As he was moving the Wraith, he was scanning the radio channels in an attempt to hear what Casey was telling the Lieutenant, as he KNEW that he'd be calling him to tell him in fairly graphic terms what Captain Carmichael would do to anyone who allowed her husband to be harmed, but he still hadn't found the channel by the time he landed, so he gave up. He had his helmet on and the armour suit sealed before he left the cockpit, lugging a full weapons load, along with the computer gear he needed to hack into the computer systems behind the air gap as he headed in.

Breaching the site wasn't very difficult with the SEAL platoon he had backing him, they met some resistance, but nothing that was a match for Chuck or the SEALs. By the time he'd gotten into the air gapped systems and extracted everything that he could find on them, the first seven or eight of the C-17s had landed and off-loaded their Marine cargo at the airstrips that the special ops teams had cleared, so the regular forces were taking over from the special ops teams that they'd brought in. With that knowledge, it was time to get ready to leave, but there was one thing that Chuck had to do before he left the computer facility. Given that these systems that he'd gone through must have been important to be secured that way, Chuck had them all mined for demolition before they left the facility. When they exited the computer facility, they'd found that Casey was apparently taking his own words to the SEAL Lieutenant to heart, as he'd called in and stationed a Marine Raider platoon outside the facility to reinforce the SEAL platoon with Chuck. The next few minutes were taken up with confirming that all their people were clear of the facility, and then they blew it sky high to ensure that anything he didn't remove from the systems wasn't usable to everyone.

Once they'd blown the facility, Chuck got Casey and the Marine Colonel on the command channel to get confirmation that the regular Marines had control of the situation before they sent out the recall to all the special forces teams, making sure that they counted everyone onto the two Wraiths before they took off. Back at the staging area, they had a discussion with the SEAL and Marine Raider commanders, which led to them agreeing to take the teams they'd taken in to secure the airstrips back to the States with them, it wasn't any skin off their noses, as it didn't effect their flights, but it did save the special ops soldiers from having to wait for the regular transports and then fly home on slower, less comfortable, transports, so the commanders were grateful and the men even more so.

On the seven hour flight back to the States, Casey caught up on sleep while Chuck used the computer systems on his Semi, S1, to start pulling apart the intel he'd extracted from the systems at the site they took down. The majority of the soldiers in back were sleeping like Casey was (soldiers like them were used to getting rest where they could). Chuck was getting alerts every now and then to say that someone was attempting to connect to the Wraith's systems via WIFI or Bluetooth, but whenever he checked them out it was just someone turning on a laptop, tablet, phone or other device so he wasn't worried, he COULD have granted them access to connect, but he wasn't inclined to trust anyone on their systems, so he didn't.

As they reached the West Coast of the USA, the two Wraiths split, Casey heading to the Marines' base and Chuck heading to the SEALs', then they met up again at the remote warehouse complex outside Barstow that they used as the base for the Wraith and Valkyrie fleet, putting the two Wraith Semis under cover and loading what they had into one of the Wraith Wagons to head home. When they got in, all Chuck wanted to do was see Sarah and the kids, but they were at the JOC offices, so he hauled what he'd brought back from the operation down to the Dungeon to load it onto the systems and start running the programs to crack any encryption. While he was doing that, he called Sarah, but she was going to be tied up in the office for at least another three hours yet, so she suggested that he'd be best off taking the opportunity to get some rest as he'd been on the go for more than twenty four hours now. Chuck agreed, but what he did was to head up to the penthouse for a quick shower and shave, got dressed in his uniform and headed off to the LA AFB in one of the Wraith Wagons, sending it back home under autonomous control once he'd touched down on the AFB roof (they had access to a few of the rooftops that had big enough areas to land the Valkyrie Liner if they needed to).

As he entered their offices he signalled to anyone who saw him to be quiet, and they all grinned, knowing that he wanted to surprise Sarah, their boss certainly broke all the rules about how to behave as an Admiral. Chuck slipped into his office and went to the open (as usual) adjoining door to Sarah's office, leaning against the door jamb as he watched her looking morosely at a picture of them on the screen. Knowing how pissed she'd be if she found he'd dragged this out, he cleared his throat, watching her scoop up a throwing knife from a hidden location in the desk as she turned towards the sound, only to drop the knife and throw herself at him instead. Chuck caught her in mid-air as she hurtled towards him. Of course, their hello kiss was interrupted after a few minutes by someone clearing their throat in the doorway (must have been the day for it), and they both only stopped reaching for the pistols stashed in the smalls of their backs when they realised it was Emma. Emma tried to wipe the smile off her face and frown as asked them to stop traumatising her grandchildren with displays like this, but she just couldn't pull it off, and came over for a hug when Chuck had put Sarah down. Emma asked how the operation had gone, and was quite interested when Chuck told them about the air gapped systems, and that the files extracted from them were being decrypted back at the Fish Palace.

Given that Sarah was STILL tied up for the next few hours, Chuck got into writing up the reports in the operation the he'd just returned from, adding them to the system with the addendum that the results of the analysis of what was recovered from the site was still outstanding, before going on to other matters that were waiting on him. One of those matters was a reminder of the discussion that he'd had with the heads of the corps six months or so back about starting the process for his next promotion, given that it would probably take longer to put through this time (the reason that they were pushing this was that there were still some issues with other groups accepting the JOC's authority to run operations that were spread across the corps, and they were proposing that putting the commander of the JOC's rank back up to a two star fleet rank should help with those issues). The problem that Chuck knew he was going to create was that he was going to insist that if they put him up to a two star Admiral, they promote Sarah to a one star Admiral as his deputy. He'd written up the case for this back when he put Sarah in charge of the operations side of the JOC, and part of that argument was that she currently had four others at the same rank as her under her command, whereas she should be at least one level above the people under her command. Chuck went over the case he'd written up six months ago, and updated a few details (mainly reports of the JOC's, and Sarah's in particular's, performance and achievements since she'd been placed in command of the operations side of JOC), and after checking through it he sent it back to the Joint Chiefs with his response.

He wasn't too surprised to get a phone call from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to ask whether he was really going to try to blackmail the government into giving two flag rank promotions at once in a unit the size of the JOC? Chuck's response was that it wasn't blackmail, he was making a logical case in regard to the make-up of his command, though if the case was rejected out of hand without proper consideration, some of the officers of the JOC may be considering resigning their commissions. The Chairman went quiet for a minute or so, then commented that, considering that he'd just stated that he wasn't blackmailing them, the references to resigning their commissions if they didn't get what they wanted sounded remarkably like a threat, and asked if his godmother was giving him tips on this? Chuck apologised if it appeared that way (putting aside the bit about Auntie D for now), but just reiterated that if the JOC structure issues weren't corrected to enable the JOC officers to operate effectively, then the resignations of some of the officers' commissions would be a step that they'd have to consider. The Chairman was quiet for a while longer and then said that the proposal would be considered, and they would be advised of the outcome of those considerations. Chuck nodded, saying "Thank you General" They didn't exactly end the call on good terms, but it did end with an understanding at least.


	24. Capitulation

**Usual disclaimer for the Land of Litigation, no rights to any characters portrayed.**

It only took the Joint Chiefs a week to come back to Chuck to advise that the proposals for his and Sarah's promotions would be submitted together as linked items, and it took less time than that to weasel the truth out of Auntie D that she'd made the same observation (threat is such an ugly word) to the President about them possibly resigning their commissions if his first promotion hadn't gone through. On top of that, for all the expectations that Chuck's second promotion would take longer to process, both went through in just under six months, so they had to head back to D.C. again for the ceremonies. There was also another big surprise that came with that news, the powers that be had also decided to bump Casey up to a one star General to add to the JOC's clout when dealing with the various corps.

Where the ceremonies were going to be held made it clear that there would be at least one notable addition to the ceremonies this time, as there could only be one reason for them to be going to the White House for this. They flew in to a secure location just outside D.C. and Auntie D had a small cavalcade of limos waiting for them. Mary and Stephen were waiting with her, but as with the previous time, due to the officials and coverage that'd be there, it wasn't safe for Mei-Ling, Laszlo and the Winters to attend, they'd be catching up with them and Roan after the ceremony, and Josie and Molly would be with them while they were at the White House. As soon as the exited the Valkyrie, Charlie and Sam ran to their grandparents, because even with the Wraiths and Valkyries, they didn't get to see them anywhere near as much as both sides would like, Mary and Stephen got over to the West Coast more often than Chuck and Sarah managed to make a big enough window in both their schedules to take the kids to the East Coast to see them, so every time they saw the twins there were significant changes from the last.

At eighteen months old, the twins were walking (and running, jumping and tumbling) and talking quite well in at least four to seven languages (it was a little hard to work out just yet which ones they really knew, and which ones they were just repeating words from, but they seemed to have a good grasp of seven languages at this point. They did feel a little sorry for Casey and Bry sometimes, in any other circles speaking five languages (plus a working knowledge of Basque) would be quite an impressive achievement, but in that particular group of exceptional polyglots, where just about everyone else was fluent in over a dozen languages (well, except for Josie and Emma, who could only manage three, plus a little Basque, but they weren't part of the core group), they almost looked challenged. Sarah smiled to herself when she thought back and remembered how angry she'd been when she questioned Chuck after the Lichtenstein mission about his fluency in German and found out that he spoke as many languages as she did, because she'd thought that he'd been hiding it from her, but she'd calmed down and they'd made up when he'd explained that, to him, it wasn't anything worth mentioning as he and Ellie had always picked up new languages easily whenever they had a need or interest in them (as had Sarah). Further discussion had made it clear that they'd gotten that ability from their mother, as their father struggled with three or four, and thinking back on it now, it was obvious that Sarah gotten her abilities in this area from Jack, given that Carina and Zondra shared them while Emma didn't), none of which should be a surprise, considering their parents, but it still did surprise many people, even in their own family.

Because of where they were going, the only weapons that they could slip in with them were a few ceramic blades, but with they lives they'd led, they weren't about to go ANYWHERE without some form of protection, besides which, it was always fun to put one over the security teams, though most of them DID have their dress swords, and the ones they carried were serious weapons that they knew how to use. They got through the security checks without trouble, and were escorted to the Oval Office, most of officials present were the same as Chuck's promotion a year before (the positions, at least, though some of the individuals had changed). The Secretary of the Navy was there (obviously), along with the Secretary of Defense, (The Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of the Air Force had also been added this time), the Director of National Intelligence, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Chief of Naval Operations, Chief of Staff of the Army, Commandant of the Marine Corps, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, the Commander in Chief, Special Operations Command, the Commander of the US Cyber Command, and the Director of the DIA, as well as a similar number from their side, so even with the couches removed for the function, there was a fair crowd in the Oval office with over two dozen people and a pair of hyperactive toddlers.

Chuck and Sarah were surprised that Charlie and Sam were being quiet, as this place was all new to them, but they behaved themselves and and the President was captivated with them, hunkering down to Charlie's level he asked "And who might you be young lady?", his grin almost spit his face in two when she replied quite clearly "Charlotte Emmaline Carmichael, Sir" with a cute little curtsy (They'd decided to keep things simple and only tell the kids their "public" names for now, they'd explain to them about their "real" names when they were old enough to understand.) before he swivelled to face Sam and asked "And who are you young man?" and Sam replied with "Samuel Stephen Carmichael, Sir", and gave an adorably serious little bow and handshake to the President. The President stood and grinned at Chuck and Sarah, mouthing "They're adorable!", which got him hit with the double whammy of the best smiles from both of them, lesser men would have collapsed at that. Once the promotion ceremonies were done, Chuck, Sarah and Casey all exchanged their uniform jackets with the ones they'd brought which had been updated to their new rank insignia for the photos (and the President also insisted on some pictures of Chuck and Sarah (and with them) with Charlie and Sam on their hips, as they looked so adorable, dressed in toddler equivalents of their parents' dress whites).

As with Chuck's previous promotion, after the photo sessions, there were additional medal award ceremonies for most of them, resulting in oak leaves or stars on existing medals for the most part, but Sarah was also awarded the Homeland Security Distinguished Service, Navy Distinguished Service, Distinguished Service, Air Force Distinguished Service and National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medals along with the Soldier's and Airman's Medals (mostly with oak leaf clusters or stars), Casey was awarded the Homeland Security Distinguished Service and Navy Distinguished Service medals, Chuck, Casey, Bry, Carina, Zondra and Anna were awarded the Airman's Medal (most with oak leaf clusters), Casey, Bry, Carina and Zondra were awarded the Soldier's Medal (most with oak leaf clusters), and Chuck and Sarah were also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. With the new round of awards, Chuck and Sarah's medal counts were more or less equal, Chuck had the Air Force Cross (for his exploits with that Hokum back when he took out an armoured cavalry company while he was covering Casey and the others' escape, Casey's Air Force Cross with an oak leaf cluster was from similar incidents where he'd used ground attack planes or attack helicopters to cover other escapes) and had more oak leaf clusters or stars on the non-combat medals, but Sarah had more oak leaf clusters or stars on the combat or valour medals, and they had certainly more than anyone else in the room (Casey had more combat or valour medals, but rather less non-combat medals). When no-one else could see them, they rolled their eyes at each other, because this was mostly a political show (the Military was no less political than other branches of the government), yes, they'd earned the medals they were awarded with their contributions and achievements, but the awards were mainly the various corps and organisations' way of ensuring that they were being seen to recognise the darlings of the moment, rather than any true appreciation of what they'd done, and in the big scheme of things, the medals didn't mean anything to them.

When they'd had all the photo ops, hand shaking and promises of support out of the way, they escaped the White House for a "family" dinner with the ones who couldn't come to the Oval Office ceremonies (though some of the dignitaries from the ceremonies were invited too as they were deemed to be part of their extended family). They spent a couple of hours catching up with each other (Josie had already been enjoying catching up with her father as she was looking after Molly while the others were at the ceremonies), and then after a few tearful goodbyes, they piled back into the Valkyrie to fly back to L.A. (well, back to the Barstow facility to exchange the Valkyrie for the Wraith Van that they flew back to the Fish Palace).

To avoid confrontations such as what happened when Chuck was promoted to Flag Rank, the heads of the various corps had distributed copies of the pictures taken by the White House photographer of the award ceremonies to all their commanders as soon as they'd returned to their offices, and made it their responsibility to ensure that any of their people who interacted with the JOC were aware of Admiral Carmichael and Captain Carmichael's new ranks. The stories that were already circulating said that the commanders in the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force were all told that if there were any repeats of the incident a year ago, it wouldn't only be their officers who were present who would be relieved of their commands, their commanding officers would share their fate (as noted, the Military is quite political and none of them had any interest in being dragged into issues like the Chief of Staff of the Army was last time).

The next morning as they arrived at the JOC offices, there were quite a few grins as the staff who'd been there from the start saluted Chuck and Sarah and greeted them with "Good morning, Admiral Carmichael, Sir!" and "Good morning, Admiral Carmichael, Ma'am!", because it been less a bit over a year ago that they'd both been Captains. They both returned the salutes with a smile, and Chuck said "Mr Johnson, Chief, could I have a word with you in my office in fifteen, please?" to the JOC's Warrant Officer and Chief Petty Officer, getting a crisp "Yes, Sir!" in unison from them, so he nodded and they proceeded to Sarah's office to settle the twins down in their play corner. Exactly fifteen minutes after he'd requested a word, his Chief Petty Officer and Warrant Officer arrived at Chuck's door and after accepting their salutes he asked them to take a seat, waving them to the comfortable chairs in front of his desk. He filled them in on the details of his, Sarah's and Casey's promotions, and the new medals that had been awarded while they were all there, passing over copies of the award and rank paperwork for them to see, along with copies of pictures of them being awarded by the president and the various secretaries, and the group photos with the assembled dignitaries and officers, and the JOC group photos with the President, Secretary of the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations and the Commandant of the Marine Corps, plus the photos of Charlie and Sam with the President. Chuck explained that Captain Van Der Graaf would be filling in her IDC personnel, so it would be appreciated if they could tell their people about the changes, telling them to take the photos, as the visual aids may help convince them, he added with a grin. Their grizzled Warrant officer matched his grin, saying that the girls would love the pictures of the twins with the President, hell, they all would, because they were so cute. As they stood to take their leave, the Warrant Officer hesitated, and then extended his hand, saying "Congratulations Chuck, no matter what some may say, you deserved this promotion, you all did." Chuck smiled as he shook his hand, saying "Thank you Chris." The Chief Petty Officer also offered his hand and his congratulations, and Chuck shook his hand with a similar response "Thank you Mark." Less than thirty seconds after they walked out the door, he heard a squeal and "Awww, they're so cute!", so he knew which pictures they'd shown the female Petty Officer who served as their receptionist first. Chuck grinned, thinking that the pair of hard bitten ex-SEALs were really softies under their crusty exteriors, just like Casey.

When they'd created the JOC unit, the Commander, Naval Special Warfare Command had made a personal request of him to try and find billets for seven or eight SEALs, including those two, as their combat injury related disabilities had taken them out of active service, but they really didn't want accept the medical discharges that were being pushed at them. It hadn't been a hard decision to offer them slots in the JOC structure, especially given that some of them had looked out for him when he was going through SEAL training when he'd just turned seventeen and when he'd been on missions with them since then. They had been hesitant to take on office roles when all they knew was combat, but Chuck had told them that the positions were theirs as long as they wanted them, and if they could get themselves back into shape to pass the physicals to go back to combat, he'd release them from their JOC responsibilities so they could. Of course, realistically they'd known that that was never going to happen for most of them and he was just giving them a way to hold their heads high as they took on roles which were nothing like they'd ever done and they weren't really qualified for, and they respected him all the more for that. So the majority of the general office crew for the JOC were battle hardened ex-SEALs, and that made things interesting sometimes. It wasn't charity, he was offering them a chance to continue contributing something to the service, while keeping their pride and self respect by not being pensioned off, but between them, these men had well over a hundred years of special operations combat experience, and they'd served in nearly every type of conditions, so they were great value to bounce ideas off when they were trying to plan the operations. They also did a good job of setting the tone for the ones coming in for Joint Operations briefings, because when the general office staff for the unit were mostly decorated ex-SEALs who had obviously been forced out of the field due to combat injuries (half of them were amputees), that made the type of men coming into JOC sit up and take notice.

One of the things that their people were tasked with that morning was mounting and hanging A3 or A2 sized copies of the award ceremony and group photos in the main office behind the receptionist, and in the main briefing room where they'd be seen as people entered the room (just in case their commanders hadn't advised them of the changes). Either the prominent display of these photos worked, or their commanders had done as they'd been ordered, because they had none of the issues that arose the last time, they were saluted and congratulated by those brought in for the briefings and the briefings went smoothly.

The actual operations continued to go just as smoothly, they'd usually fly the first strike teams in with the Wraiths (or the Valkyries if crew size and time window were small enough to justify it) and direct the operations from the aircraft, only leaving the aircraft and getting into the direct action if there was something that required their specific skill sets (like the air-gapped systems had on the big operation that Chuck did with Casey), or Casey, Bry, Carina or Zondra needed to scratch their itches for action. With the twins to worry about, Chuck and Sarah had something more important than any need for action which kept them in the safer containment of the Wraiths or Valkyries unless there was a real need for them to go into action. That was another rule that they strictly enforced, they'd never go on a potentially dangerous mission together, one of them would always stay with the twins in case something went wrong. The only exceptions to that the either/or rule was when they attended functions under cover as the Carmichaels, which they had to attend together as they were using their "civilian" cover lives to get access. Whenever they did that they steered well clear of any action and stayed in sight as part of the civilian sheep while they directed the operations of the others. The only times they were directly part of the action was if it couldn't be done without them, and if they did go in they'd be incognito in the full Nova tactical armour suits and helmets, backed up by others on the teams and/or a strike team.

When he was watching Sarah plough the opposition via the security feeds while he was running support for one of the missions where she had to go in, Chuck wondered to himself whether she was really ready to give all this up. Sarah was the best at this, and even though she was the one who'd proposed that they withdraw from active roles like this on missions because their kids had to take priority over everything else, he was worried that missing the action (as the others obviously did all the time) may make her resent their family for making her give this up. Obviously he didn't manage to keep his concerns out of his voice, as she immediately asked him what was wrong, and the suspicion in her voice told him that she wasn't buying his response that everything was fine, even before she came out with her usual line "I know your fines, Baby, and that wasn't a real one, I'm a little tied up at the moment but we'll talk about this when we get home." He tried convincing her that there was nothing to talk about, but all he did was confirm her suspicions, so he gave in when she said. "This isn't over Chuck, we'll talk about it when we get home!" Soon after that they managed to plug the remote access devices into the network inside the facility and Chuck was as busy as they were, splitting his attention between watching their backs on the monitors, directing them to the location of the safe that they had to extract the mission objective from, getting into the systems to extract any data there, and configuring the programs that would be injected into the network to wipe out all the systems and databases once he'd sucked everything possible out of them. When they'd retrieved the mission objective, Chuck crashed the security system and lights before guiding them out past the remote access devices, but they weren't too happy when he had to make them wait there for five minutes while the data extraction finished and he injected the worms that would wipe out all the systems before they could remove the remote access devices. Another thing the team had been doing was mining the facility as they went, so as soon as they'd taken off in the Wraith Wagon, Chuck started setting off the charges, taking out the server environment first, then the archives, the labs, the storage rooms for their biochem weapons, and finally the structural charges to bring the building down on top of what had already been blown up.

When they got home, they collected the twins from Emma and put them to bed, Sarah had a shower (Chuck used the workroom's shower while she was in there) and came out in her usual sleepwear of one of Chuck's T-shirts and boy shorts, settling down cross legged on the bed before looking at him and saying "OK, talk!" He'd been trying to prepare for this since they talked while she was in the facility, and he thought he had a plan that would be good enough, but the second he met her gaze, he was lost in those azure pools which had her care and concern swirling around in them, just as he had been every time from the day they met. Chuck gave up on his clever (as he'd thought at the time) plan to talk around the issue and gave in, resistance was futile, just as it had been ever since the day he fell under her spell, the day they met. As he haltingly explained his fears that she'd come to miss the action and resent him and the twins for taking her away from that, Sarah's face displayed rapid changes from anger, to exasperation, to concern, love, and back to exasperation several times over. When he'd finished, she gracefully unfolded herself and crossed the room to where he was standing, reaching up on tip toe to gently kiss his lips and tell him quietly "Chuck, you could be the dumbest smart man I've ever met." With that, she took his hand and led him back to the bed, making him sit before she settled cross legged beside him again and starting to speak. "For a start, yes, the excitement of a mission like that is an adrenalin rush for me, just as it is for you when you do it." When he tried to answer she held a finger up to stop him. "I've seen you when you're in one of those missions, and after, you can't pretend you don't get a rush from them too!" He nodded, reluctantly. "But that's all it is, an adrenalin rush, everything that's important to me, you, the twins, Mom and the rest of our family, what we're achieving with Piranha, the JOC and our NSA and DIA teams, that doesn't need the rush to make it worthwhile, and it IS worthwhile, we're doing important things. Shit, we've saved the world several times over, we're saving countless lives all the time with what we're doing and we're running a successful business and living the high life on our own terms, do you REALLY think that I'm so shallow that I'd get tired of that and want to go back to what I had before just for the excitement?"

Chuck was looking ashamed of himself now. "No, I don't think you're shallow, I guess it's just my own insecurities coming back at me, you looked so alive and free when you were in there, it just made me think that I was holding you back from that." "Idiot, you've never held me back from anything, as far as being alive goes, I only really came to life when I had you in my life, and I'm starting to think that you need to see a shrink about your insecurities, you've got less to be insecure of than any other man I've ever met." She suddenly hopped off the bed and dragged him into the workroom and across to their now rather crowded certificate and photo wall, pointing to the wall she asked him how many men had earned a fraction of what was up there? When he shrugged, she went on "Fuck all! That's the point, and this is only a small part of who you are, you've achieved so much in so many fields that most could never aspire to, even what you did in your man-whore phase was impressive, as much as I didn't like hearing about it." She stopped and made him face her. "And on top of that, you're my husband, the man I love and plan to spend the rest of my life with, and you're the wonderful father of our two wonderful children, and you'll be just as wonderful with however many other children we'll have, you'll do everything possible to ensure that we're safe, and happy, because that's who you are, and that's part of the reason I love you as much as I do, so will you TRY to let those stupid insecurities go, please? I'm never going to get tired of this, and I will always love you for making this my life, not resent it." Chuck cried as he pulled her into his arms, kissing the top of her head and whispering "Love you" into her hair, he could hear the emotion in her voice as she whispered "Love you more!" back at him.

 **A/N: This one's a bit of a filler, too, sorry, it was hard to get started on anything interesting, and when I did I decided to break that off for the next chapter.**

 **NB: I thought that as Casey got the least out of the positions/grades that were being created for them to effectively lead the joint operations (he'd gotten to a Lieutenant Colonel through the more normal system before all of this), that it would be feasible for the more old school ones in the powers that be to be arguing that a promotion for Casey made more sense than the others, and given that politics would have driven Chuck's and Sarah's, they could have given Casey his to shut up the ones who were arguing, and Chuck and Sarah wouldn't begrudge him getting his flag rank, they would have been happy for him.**


	25. Bad Omen

**Usual disclaimer, no rights to any characters portrayed.**

Soon after Sarah's mission, an urgent mission came down from General Beckman (as she had her NSA Director hat on at that point), word had come through about a new super-virus that had been written, the Omen virus. When Chuck, Jeff and Anna heard what the Omen virus was supposed to be able to do (that it was capable of erasing a hundred zetabytes of data per second) they gasped, which gave the others an idea that this was serious, but it wasn't until Chuck put it into layman's terms (it could wipe out every database in the world in about five seconds) that they realised just what they were facing. Whatever the NSA had on the Omen virus was sent through to them and they started their searches based on that. The only lead on the location of the virus that they could track down was that the designer of the virus was currently living with a cult in a compound out in the back blocks of Massachusetts (which made sense, as he was an MIT alumni), so they got the team ready to head over in a Valkyrie, calling the Barstow complex to get a Wraith Wagon loaded into one and get both ready for the trip by the time that they arrived.

Given the nature of what they were going after, the group was different from their normal missions, Chuck, Anna and Jeff were there to look into the virus, and they had Casey, Carina and Zondra for the action, it was Sarah who was sitting things out this time. When they got to the location of the cult's compound, they sent UAVs with active camouflage out to see what they were up against. They'd already decided that it wasn't safe for Chuck to go in, as he was too recognisable, being splashed across all the society pages as Charles Carmichael, and they were trying to work out who should go in when Chuck burst out laughing, the others came over to see what he was laughing about and Casey's immediate reaction was "Oh hell, no!", as everyone they could see in the compound was naked. The others looked at each other, the obvious one for the job was Carina as she had no compunctions about putting on a show (she'd been made to do far more than that too many times for that to worry her), but the problem was that she'd already put on a show at lots of the functions and clubs that she'd been to, and her face and other bits were quite recognisable from those incidents.

There was no way that Casey was going to go in there naked (even though he was in far better shape than most men half his age, any chance of him agreeing went out the door with Carina's crack about it only being "a little general nudity"), Anna and Jeff had tentatively volunteered to go in (as they weren't as visible and therefore as recognisable as the others), but that plan ran into a snag when they saw that there were paramilitary guards in there who appeared to be quite well trained and capable. The guards made it obvious that this wasn't just a group of eccentric weirdos, the people who were behind it were serious, and Jeff, at least, wasn't up to tackling teams of paramilitary guards. Anna was still prepared to go (well Jeff was, too, but they wouldn't let him), and Zondra said she'd go in with her, so they got ready to head in (well, it took Chuck and Casey longer to unload the W1 from the back of the Valkyrie and get it flight ready than it did for them to get undressed and toss oversized T-shirts on for the quick trip in). At the last second Casey told them that he'd come along and stay with the Wagon in case they needed him, he didn't like the feel of this and didn't want them in there without backup, Zondra thanked him and Anna just came in to give him a hug, she knew as well as Chuck did that the crusty facade that he put on was just that, a facade, and he did care about them.

Casey put the Wagon down in a corner of the compound and the girls tossed the T-shirts back into the cabin before they headed for the nearest group. It was actually good that Anna was there, as she could put up a convincing argument that she knew Colin Davis (the guy they were looking for) from their old hacker days, so people told them where to find to him without any qualms (through they had set off alarm bells with one of the ones running the place who'd overheard them asking for him and she sent the guards after them). The biggest problem was that Colin was more paranoid than Stephen was, and when they tried to convince him to come with them, he'd swallowed the device he had with him to prevent it being used. Zondra put him out with a choke hold while Anna looked up at where the UAVs would be and mouthed a call for Casey to come and get them. Casey lifted off with the Wagon when he saw that, but at that moment, the guards what had been sent to find them arrived. The guards were looking smug and arrogant as they knew they two women didn't have any weapons on them because they certainly weren't carrying anything while they were naked (as they were before they'd picked up the generic robes they were wearing now), and the taller one was gorgeous, they'd been watching her on the monitors before she put that robe on and they were really looking forward to "searching" her, for that matter the little Asian one should be fun, too. Anna and Zondra were moving in preparation to fight the guards off (making sure they could fight back to back and their footing was clear), when there was a flurry of "spluts" and all six guards and the woman who'd sent them after the girls were suddenly laying on the ground, out cold. Both girls looked up at where the UAVs would be and said "Thanks Chuck", this was obviously the result of skills acquired through decades of expertly playing first shooter video games, and the only one they had who fit the bill in that respect was Chuck.

Casey touched down and popped the door of the cabin, calling to ask if they needed him to pick the guy up, but they waved him off and grabbed an arm each to drag the guy to the Wagon, tossing him in and climbing in after him. Casey closed the cabin door as he lifted off. He'd been talking to Chuck and was taking them to another point further away to rendezvous with the Valkyrie, Chuck was calling the UAVs back in now and would follow as soon as they'd been retrieved. As usual, Chuck came in with his signature landing manoeuvre, the Valkyrie's weren't as stealthy as the Wraiths (as Stephen and co had basically tacked VTOL capabilities onto a near hypersonic airframe when they redesigned it for the group's purposes, whereas the Wraiths' original design was a VTOL platform), so the only way to make a really stealthy landing with the Valkyrie was something that only Chuck, with the ultimate Intersect in his head, could pull off. The Chuckdown (as the rest of them like to call it) consisted of coming in at just above any ground cover (trees etc) and shutting down the jets before pulling up into a stall to stop forward momentum, letting it fall and cutting in the VTOL fans just in time to level it out and cushion the impact as the Valkyrie touched down so that it did so gently and evenly.

As usual, he'd calculated everything perfectly, so when they'd landed and he lowered the ramp, the Wagon was right at the end of the ramp. Casey was in the process of reconfiguring the Wagon from flight mode to transport mode, so Chuck and Jeff ran down to grab Colin and carry him into the Valkyrie, but when they were about to dump him in a seat, Anna stopped them and asked them to hold him for a sec as she grabbed a pair of sweatpants, to put them on him while they were holding him up. Chuck looked at her when she did this and she grimaced, saying "Trust me, we had to see that on the way over and you DON'T want to get that view", he grinned at that and bent down to kiss her on the cheek, saying "Thanks" after they'd dumped Colin in the seat. Meanwhile Casey had finished putting the Wagon into transport mode and had grabbed a tablet to drive it backwards up onto the ramp and engage the locks to hold it in place, vaulting up onto the ramp behind the Wagon before he initiated the command to close the ramp and told Chuck to get them out of there. They were all used to Chuck's handling of the Valkyries and half of them didn't even bother sitting down, just holding on as he lifted off and canted it nose down to use the thrust of the lift fans to get the Valkyrie's momentum up before bringing in the jets, like the Chuckdown, this was the stealthiest and most efficient way to take off with a Valkyrie and it was also something that really required the Intersect to successfully run through all the calculations needed to make it work on the fly, so they called this one the Chuckoff. Most of them enjoyed watching Chuck as he did his landings and takeoffs, as he was like a virtuoso, one hand on the joystick and the other dancing over the panel used to control the individual lift fans and engines, occasionally darting off to operate the landing gear and anything else needed, they knew that he didn't really like the Chuckdown and Chuckoff terms, but the girls (including Sarah) kept using them to wind him up, and so did Bry, Casey and Jeff sometimes. Zondra and Anna got dressed while they flew, if anyone else had been with them they would have used the Valkyrie's toilet to get changed, but they were comfortable with the fact that Jeff and Casey, like Chuck, were gentlemen and would respect their privacy enough for them to be able to do so in the main cabin (Colin wasn't a factor as they'd tranqed him in the Wagon and he'd be out for an hour at least).

They went back to one of Stephen's more out of the way lab facilities, putting the Valkyrie down behind the building before Casey and Chuck picked Colin up to carry him inside. Chuck had a chance to talk to Sarah (and the twins) while they waited for Colin to wake up, and they all had something to eat. There was also time for Jeff to duck out and pick up the ingredients that Chuck requested (using the drug and poisons database in the Intersect) to make up a concoction to be used to expel the virus device from Colin's stomach, as well as another concoction to cure his affliction once his stomach had given up what it was harbouring. When Colin came to, Chuck went to talk to him.

Colin was prepared to tell him about the virus that he'd written for the Collective, and that the device he had with him was just the virus key (or more to the point, the core of the virus), which needed to be combined with another device for it to be activated and delivered. When Chuck jokingly asked him if he'd swallowed that, too, Colin shook his head, saying that it was locked up back at the Collective where he was working when he wrote it, before he got agitated and tried to convince Chuck just how dangerous this virus was, saying that he should have destroyed it to make sure that it could never be used, but it was his crowning achievement, his magnum opus, and his pride just wouldn't let him destroy it, so he'd taken the key that was needed for it to be used, and he ran. He'd been on the run for a while when one of his old buddies from MIT told him about the cult out in the boondocks where you could disappear and no-one could find you, so he'd gone there. Chuck looked at him for a bit before pointing out (as gently as he could) that whoever had told him that he couldn't be found there was obviously wrong, as they'd tracked him down to the cult without too much trouble, though he conceded that apparently no-one else had managed to do that yet. At that point, Carina had brought coffee in for the two of them, and stayed to talk to them and distract Colin while he drank his (when Carina made the effort she could distract just about any man on the planet, and most of the women, so with her assistance he drank most of the "coffee" before he'd even noted the fact that there was a marked after taste to what he was drinking, because what he'd been given was in fact the concoction that Chuck had made up, mixed with a liberal dose of coffee essence to mask the flavour). When Colin had emptied his stomach into the waste paper bin that she pushed in front of him, Carina pulled some surgical gloves on and fished the key out of the mess in the bottom of the bin, taking it out for Stephen to clean it up and ensure that it hadn't been damaged by the gastric acids while it was in Colin's stomach.

Back in the room where Chuck and Colin were, Chuck handed Colin another cup, telling him to drink it as it would counteract the effects of the first concoction that he'd drunk. Colin wasn't in the mood to trust him after the first thing they gave him to drink, but thought that anything would be better than the way he felt at that moment, so he did, and felt almost immediate relief. Chuck apologised for what they'd done to him, but explained that they did, in fact, know how dangerous his Omen virus was, and that was why they'd been tasked with tracking it down and making sure that it was locked away where it could never be used. He also explained that to ensure that no-one could discover another copy of the virus key code somewhere on the Collective's systems and use that to activate the virus, they'd need to recover the other part of the delivery mechanism, and they'd need his help to do that. At that point, Colin's desire to help out dried up, as he was obviously terrified of the people at and behind the Collective, Chuck was getting frustrated with the responses he was getting and took a break, using the time to check into one of the things that Colin had told him. Unfortunately, what Colin had told him was correct, there was no way to hack into the Collective's systems from the outside as they'd employed solid controls which generally prevented a direct link being made between their internal systems and the outside world. The only hole in their defences was a small number of dual homed systems that served as gateways that bridged the internal and external networks, but they were configured in such a way that it would take too long to get control of them and use them to exploit the internal systems without triggering the watchdog systems that they had in place. This meant that someone had to go in there and get enough control of their security systems to let their people into the secure area where the other part of the Omen delivery mechanism was located, and they only had one person who was up to that task.

For the first time, Chuck was glad that Sarah was on the other side of the country, because she was going to kill him when she found out what he was planning to do. The ONLY one who had a chance to do what had to be done inside the time window that they'd have was the Piranha, because even if he was prepared to ask Anna to do this (which he wasn't), she couldn't do what they needed inside the limited time window that would be available. Chuck had also looked up everything know about the Collective and had confirmed what Colin had told him about their recruitment, or rather entry tests, that the only way to get into the Collective was to beat the best they had in a hack-off contest, and anyone who tried and failed got a bullet in the head, so if you weren't good enough to become part of the Collective, you were dead. That obviously meant that whoever they went up against had to be pretty damned good just to stay alive. Also, as well as the quite effective electronic and cyber security controls they employed, they had a significant force of mercenaries serving as their physical security, so no part of this was going to be a walk in the park. While Chuck was looking at this, trying to formulate a plan that had a good enough chance at success (the fall back option of dropping a few bunker busters on the building was actually looking good for the first time, but given what the Omen virus was looking like, Chuck thought that they really needed to see what else they had in there), Casey came up to quietly remind him of what he'd told him on their last op, if he got himself killed in there Sarah would bring him back to kill him again. Chuck nodded, but after looking around to make sure that no-one else could overhear him, asked Casey to line up two or three trusted NSA strike teams to back them up on this, as he had a nebulous plan in his head that would require them once he did his part.

While Chuck was formulating a plan, he was also putting together a site where he could quickly access all the tools he'd need to pull this off, given what he'd seen (and been told by Colin) about the nature of the entry tests, he'd be sitting on one of the dual homed gateway machines, so he should be able to access this staging site to grab his tools and deploy them against the internal systems (or other systems). To pull this off, he had to run four operations, the first three pretty much concurrently and the fourth to finish them off. The first operation was to get into all the internal systems and databases and pump any data or code stored on them out to the staging site he set up, so it could be analysed and followed up once they took the Collective down. The second operation was to gain control of the security and lighting/power systems, so that when the time came he could a) give the others access to the vault where the Omen delivery device was stored, and b) crash the security and power circuits to give them an escape route and let the NSA strike teams in to get control of the facility, capture anyone present and collect anything else that was in there. The third operation was to actually win the competition for the Collective's entry test (to avoid the bullet to the head), while the fourth operation had to wait for the first operation to be completed and terminated, because it was to insert worms and other malware into the internal network to wipe out all of the Collective's systems and databases, and he'd have to pull off the three non-test operations without anyone there realising what he was doing. While he was doing all of this, they had to have a team get into the facility and slip past or take down the Collective's guards without being discovered, and extract the Omen delivery device from the vault where it was stored (Colin had given Chuck all the detail he could about where the device was stored, how to identify it when they found it and what they would be up against, and to be honest, Chuck could understand why the man was too afraid to go back in there, you'd have to be an idiot to want to go into that vipers' nest, not that he was going to admit THAT to Casey).

When he had what he thought was a workable plan, Chuck called the others together and laid it out (just leaving the bullet in the head angle out of the description, only Casey knew about that as he'd been listening in), he explained what he'd be doing (he'd be going in as a prospective Collective member, pretending to be trying to win a position with them), and also explained what the other team would have to do. Given what would be required of them, it was quickly determined that the other group would be made up of Carina (for her breaking and entering and combat skills), Anna, again (to handle any technical security or computer system issues they came up against and for her combat skills), and Casey (as the blunt instrument to make sure that the other two got out safely), and that they'd land on the roof in a Wraith Wagon or Van (depending on whether one of the strike teams was going in from the roof after them, or not) and come in that way, using the Nova tactical armour and helmets with active camouflage to make it easier (and safer) to slip through the building, and Zondra would be piloting the Wraith Wagon or Van in full combat gear, ready to come in to support them if needed. They'd also have at least two NSA strike teams waiting outside to breach the doors downstairs and capture everyone in the building when he crashed the security and power systems.

The others looked at Chuck, sensing that there was something that he wasn't telling them, but couldn't fault the plan as it was presented, so Chuck called the Collective, using Colin's name and saying that he'd known him back when he originally joined them but hadn't heard from him since then, and got called in for a try out. Once he had a time and place (which confirmed the location they already knew), Chuck got started on getting himself a new face so he wouldn't be recognised, and put on the covert protective gear that he normally wore under his stereotypical all black cracker outfit (trying not to think about the fact that, with the possible exception of the thin liquid armour beanie, the protective gear he'd be wearing gave him absolutely no protection against the bullet in the head that he'd been told to expect), while the others got themselves kitted out with the full tactical armour suits and helmets, along with whatever weapons and equipment they though they needed.

They flew down to New York in a Wraith Van and picked up one of the strike teams when they dropped Chuck off. Carina surprised Chuck by pulling him into a rib cracking Ellie hug and fiercely whispering in his ear that he better get through this fine, because her niece and nephew were NOT going to grow up without a father! Chuck kissed her on the cheek and told her that he had everything planned out, then he left (not finding out until later in the mission that Carina, Zondra and Anna had cornered Casey and forced him to spill what Chuck hadn't told the rest of them about the consequences of failing the Collective's entry test as soon as he'd left, but Casey had looked at Anna and reminded her what the Piranha could do before asking HER whether she thought the Piranha could beat whatever cracker he was put up against. It was only Anna's reluctant nod in response to Casey's question that stopped Carina and Zondra from grabbing Chuck before he got to the Collective's building and calling off the whole operation).

Chuck got into the Collective and jumped into the entry test, flipping back and forth between multiple windows the entire time to cover up what he was doing in the background. The tools he had on tap on the site he'd set up made quick work of getting into the Collective's systems and databases so he could siphon everything back out via the encrypted pipe he'd created to the site, and the same applied to getting control of the security and power systems. When Carina and Anna were at the door of the vault (they'd sent Casey to cover Chuck, being prepared to follow his plan didn't mean that they were ready to take chances with his safety), they sent Chuck the agreed signal and he unlocked it for them. Thirty seconds later they were back outside with the delivery device in their possession and sent him the agreed follow up signal. Chuck quickly checked to confirm that the operation to extract the Collective's data was completed and sent the commands to lock down the server room and then crash the security and lighting systems, injecting the worms etc (disconnecting the encrypted pipe to his external site with the commands that he'd appended to the packets that he sent in), just before crashing the rest of the power systems and bolting.

The computer and database systems were on uninterrupted power supplies, so they stayed up long enough for the worms etc to wipe out all the systems, but crashing the building's power systems took out any monitoring or communications interfaces outside of the server room, so except for the few systems support people who were actually in the server room, no-one knew what was going on until it was too late, because they couldn't contact anyone else in the building, or anywhere else (the Collective had a faraday cage encasing their entire server environment, with the only connectivity in or out being the shielded cables running out to the coders' area, so mobile phones couldn't work from inside the server room, and as he'd locked the server room down before he crashed the security systems, they couldn't get out of there to call anyone either. They'd be released when the UPS in the server room ran out, because the locks could be released manually then).

As soon as he crashed the power systems, Chuck bolted, using wide spectrum imaging glasses disguised as sunglasses (another great creation of Stephen and Laszlo) to see where he was going in the dark, and he left none too soon as he heard gunshots behind him as he left the room that the coders' area was in. When someone grabbed his shoulder he spun to engage his attacker, but stopped when he saw it was Casey (the imaging glasses negated the active camouflage enough to see the shapes of anything using their active camouflage), so he turned and resumed running towards the roof were the Wraith Van was. As he ran he asked Casey why he wasn't with the girls, quickly turning his head to glare at him when he admitted to telling the girls about the bullet in the head angle that he'd kept from them, because he knew what he'd be facing from Sarah when she found out that he'd knowingly gone into a situation like that. When they heard the strike team heading down from the roof, Casey deactivated the active camouflage to cover up the fact that they had that capability (as Zondra and Anna did) and they waved the team through. On the roof they piled into the Wraith Van, but the girls were too stuck in yelling at him about taking chances like he did to do anything about moving, so Chuck just pushed past them into the cockpit and took off himself.

Back at Stephen's lab, Chuck made sure that they had a few viable images of the Omen virus on standalone systems before they delivered the key and the delivery device to be locked away in the CIA/NSA secure archives, because there was something about all this that was setting off alarm bells in the back of his head. He also spent time getting as much detail about the development parameters for the virus as he could out of Colin before he went into witness protection (they'd made a case for witsec for Colin, based on the fact that he'd run with the key to the virus to prevent it being unleashed, and that it would be inadvisable to have him interned anywhere that the others from the Collective or those who'd commissioned the virus could find him. On top of that they'd shuffled him through multiple identify changes before he was released to witsec, and then muddied the trail as much as they could in the witsec records once they'd turned him over, so they were fairly sure that he was safe from the ones he'd been hiding from). On the basis of what Chuck had learned from Colin, he, Anna and Jeff jumped onto making amendments to all their gateway and system controls to provide as much protection as possible from incursions from anything like the Omen virus as soon as they got back to the Fish Palace (which was only partly a ploy on Chuck's part to hide from Sarah, he WAS genuinely concerned that they hadn't heard the last of this yet, and Sarah hadn't gotten her hands on him yet, so the alarm bells he was still hearing weren't just the ringing in his ears from his loving wife's reaction to the news of what he'd done).

When they'd updated their security controls to give some protection from something like the Omen virus, it was time for Chuck to face the music, but what Sarah did got to him far more than violence would have, she just cried, letting out her fear and hurt about how it would have effected her and their children if his gamble hadn't paid off, if one of those head cases from the Russian Mob who ran the Collective had just shot him in the head as he'd been told could happen. Chuck took it all, as she was right, he HAD taken a risk that could have turned out very bad, but then he pointed out that she'd agreed that the ramifications of the Omen virus getting out were catastrophic, and also pointed out that he, as the Piranha, was the only one who could have been almost guaranteed to pull off the job of getting through the Collective's entry test, and now they had copies of the Collective's other work (much of it almost as nasty as the Omen virus), as well as their records of the customers who paid the Collective for these things. When Sarah still didn't look convinced, he pointed out that he'd only been in her world as a field agent for less than six years, but he'd been handling a lot of the government's cyber security and cyber terrorism issues for over eighteen years, THIS was his world, THIS was his responsibility to handle, so he wasn't going to send Anna or Jeff in when they weren't as well equipped to succeed, or survive, as he was.

He gently grabbed her chin to make her look at him and assured her that he'd done everything that he could to stack the deck in their favour, and he'd had the commands queued up so that if things looked like they were going bad, he could have crashed all the power systems in five to ten seconds, dropped to the floor and gotten out of there before anyone had any idea where he was. He looked her in the eye and promised her that he'd done everything possible to make sure that he'd be coming back to her and their children, because they meant more to him than anything else in this world, but he had a responsibility to do his best to prevent something like that getting out, because the potential loss of life from the systems that it brought down was unacceptable, let alone the catastrophic effects of collapsing economies (which could quite well happen if all the computer systems crashed and couldn't be recovered). Sarah eventually nodded, saying that she understood why he had to do it, but when she'd heard what he'd done, all the possible repercussions of one gunshot burst over her, and she couldn't handle the thought of them having to go on without him. Emma had taken the twins to her apartment, so Chuck just spent the night holding her and reminding her that there was nothing more important to him, and nowhere that he'd rather be than there with her and their children.

The tears and fears and anguish came crashing down on them all over again a few weeks later when the Omen virus WAS unleashed. When it was investigated after the fact, it was found that the remnants of Graham's organisation were behind the "tip" that had come through about the virus, because they and the Collective hadn't been able to track Colin Davis down to get the virus key (they'd been the ones who'd commissioned the Collective to create the Omen virus), but someone had had the bright idea of using the system to get the Intersect team, via General Beckman, to do it for them. Once the key and the delivery mechanism were in the Secure Archives, they'd just used the people they had in the system to retrieve them from there, so what the team had done by tracking down the elements of the virus and ensuring that it was safely locked away from the bad guys was, in fact, deliver it right to them. Of course, those details didn't come out at first, but when the virus was released, the archives were immediately checked and when the devices turned up missing, a witch hunt was started to discover who took them. It didn't take long to narrow that down to Clive Johnston, the CIA's North Eastern Region Deputy Director who'd just gone AWOL and Stanley Fitzoy, the pathetic little worm in the Archive's Administration who'd retrieved the devices for Johnston without any authorisation or approval from any of the parties who were quite clearly listed as having the ONLY authority to release these devices, purely because Johnston had patted him on the head and pandered to his ego by telling him how important he was and how he deserved far more respect than he was getting. Now Fitzroy was sitting in a cell facing serious treason charges (while still asking what he'd done wrong), but he was absolutely no use in finding what had happened to the devices, because he was nothing but a mindless tool, like a stupid little mutt who was just sitting there wagging his tail because he'd gotten his belly rubbed for fetching when his master told him to.

The effect of the Omen virus wasn't actually as bad as they'd expected it to be, though. Yes, billions of systems around the world were being owned to create botnets big enough to overpower the target systems, but those systems were still functioning to a large degree, so they weren't being taken out by the virus as Colin had thought that they would be. When Jeff went through the Omen code on the stand alone machines that they'd copied it onto (while Chuck was King of the Hackers in their circles, Jeff was their master of reverse engineering code, so they took him off everything else and had him focussed ONLY on finding out what the Omen virus was supposed to do), he found that the target systems were all government systems, and the purpose of the Omen virus seemed to be to datamine the government systems and databases for the purpose of creating a master database of all government intel. There were a few glitches that helped prevent the Omen virus working the way that they'd expected it to, the first being the controls that Chuck, Anna and Jeff had put in place to mitigate incursions from Omen or anything like it into any systems that they had a hand in controlling (primarily anything to do with military intelligence and other military systems), and the fact that the nature of those controls had been shared with other parts of the US government and commercial sectors in an attempt to protect the integrity of American systems, and had also been shared with America's allies. The controls hadn't been implemented by everyone, but they were implemented widely enough to seriously curtail the effects of the virus. The primary problem for Omen's plans though was that the majority of the databases were configured for essentially read only access for anything other than a small number of specific IDs (mainly Database Administrator IDs), so the commands to erase the data after it was extracted were generally rejected.

The next biggest issue with the plans for the Omen virus was that Colin didn't have a background in business critical enterprise systems, and that was where Omen was coded to store the massive amounts of data it was supposed to be collating from the government systems, the plan had been to take over major cloud server environments as staging areas for the data, and then forward it to the destination from there, but while the cloud server environments theoretically had the capacity to handle the petabytes of data that they were expecting, they didn't factor in how the telco level load balancing and edge filter mechanisms that a large scale server farm used would handle the type of data streams that they'd be generating, which was just to drop the traffic with no response to indicate what was happening to it. Another boon was the fact that Colin or someone else had repeated the mistake of the Code Red Virus, in that it was coded to forward data to specific IP address ranges, so if those address ranges were changed, the data had nowhere to go.

The end result was that the Omen virus didn't crash most of the world's systems like they expected it to. Yes, the impacts were significant, even catastrophic to a degree, the billions of systems that were taken over to be used for the massive botnets or staging servers had to be rebuilt, the majority by hand as their owners weren't set up to re-image them readily. On top of that, the massive distributed denial of service attacks took major government and commercial systems off-line for hours, or even days, and that was enough to kill off businesses, even some sizable enterprises, as the inability to operate on-line nowadays is a business killer to over 99.99% of businesses. Then there was the issue of the classified information, the government demanded that they get all the disks from every system or device that the data extracted from classified government systems (basically every government system) had passed through, and the outcry and arguments from the commercial sector were thunderous, as the financial impact of this (due to hardware replacement costs and loss of business while systems were rebuilt from scratch with the new hardware) would certainly be in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and probably far more than that.

Luckily for the team, the arguments about classified data and financial damages and reimbursement weren't their problem, their problem was tracing the data trail through to the final systems and capturing the people involved, and that wasn't actually that hard. The target address ranges for the next stage was coded into each stage of the data path, so they just had to step through the data path until there wasn't a next step. There were several branchings of those data paths along the way, so in the end they had around fifty target systems and they went back to one of the things they did best, quietly hack into the systems and copy off the contents, covering up all traces of the incursion once they were done, then decrypt what they had collected and pull it all apart. They got names, addresses, financial records, and when they pulled the files on the people associated with those things, Chuck was flashing so continuously that he lived with constant headaches (even with the much improved later Intersect) and he was putting out reams of intel on the people associated with those systems. The Intersect team was involved with the capture of the more important names that came out of their investigation, but the vast majority of the hundreds of names were farmed out to other NSA agents. They lost quite a few of the targets (more than a few in quite suspicious circumstances), but upwards of 80% of them (and all the primaries and politicians) were taken into custody. At that point the Intersect team's responsibilities in regard to the Omen fallout were cut back significantly.

Their workloads post Omen were actually much more manageable than they'd been previously, the Piranha workload was cut back significantly when customers didn't have the funding to continue with the contracts that they'd engaged them for, with their existing customers, they generally agreed to put their contracts on hold until the current crisis had blown over. (They didn't really need paying gigs to keep going, they were mainly just for the cover.) For the most part, the CIA and NSA were licking their wounds after Omen, so few missions came down the pipeline for them, though the team did keep generating missions themselves when actionable intel turned up, whether from Chuck's flashes or other analysis of situations or information. Their DIA and JOC workloads were effected the least by the Omen incidents, as military issues never seemed to go away.

The team did get a surprise when they were called back to D.C. for another award ceremony after the Omen incidents, because Chuck was to be awarded with the National Intelligence Cross and a second award of the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal by the DNI for what he did in the Collective (and afterwards). The award just meant another bit of frippery that he had to add to the collection to Chuck, but it upset Sarah as she was reminded of her fears about his actions in there, which then led to her pointing out to him that everyone but him seemed to believe that he'd been at risk in there, and that of course meant that much more for Chuck to make up for.


End file.
